Quotes & Sayings About Strategy And Tactics

Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible. — Stonewall Jackson

No army is comprised of all the same kinds of units or types of troops. There is power in diversity. If you always see only one choice, or use only one option, you will surely lose more than you win. — A.J. Darkholme

Logistics comprises the means and arrangements which work out the plans of strategy and tactics. Strategy decides where to act; logistics brings the troops to this point. — Antoine-Henri Jomini

The conclusion that many uniformed military came away from Vietnam with was that political interference, dominance of strategy and even tactics were a very bad way to conduct a war, and that indeed, if that was going to be our practice, that we shouldn't wage conflict again. — Robert McFarlane

Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures. — Carlos Ghosn

All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. — Sun Tzu

As an infantry officer who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, I have led men in combat and trained them on tactics and strategy. The mission of the infantry is to 'close with, and destroy, the enemy.' Our job, in a direct way, is to fight and win wars. — Pete Hegseth

In chess, computers show that what we call 'strategy' is reducible to tactics, ultimately. It only looks creative to us. They are still just glorified cash registers. This should make us feel uncomfortable, whether or not we think computers will ever be good composers of music or artistic painters. — Tyler Cowen

In his earlier campaigns his logistical strategy was direct and devoid of subtlety. The cause would appear to be, first, that in the youthful Alexander, bred to kingship and triumph, there was more of the Homeric hero than in the other great captains of history; and, still more perhaps, that he had such justifiable confidence in the superiority of his instrument and his own battle handling of it that he felt no need to dislocate preparatorily his adversaries' strategic balance. His lessons for posterity lie at the two poles-grand strategy and tactics. — B.H. Liddell Hart

Justice, as it turned out, was a lot harder than war. War was largely a series of technical questions, a matter of taking living human bodies and making them dead. There were infinite variations in the tactics and the strategy, of course, nuances in weaponry and technique, but the basic premise was bedrock: you'd done it right if you were alive at the end of the day, and the other poor fool was not. — Brian Staveley

All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. — Sun Tzu

Foulgrin's Rule Twenty-Three: tactics without strategy are useless. — Randy Alcorn

If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him. Though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force. — Sun Tzu

Unlike the interference of ordinary interest, power, or prejudice, which touches philosophy only at its outskirts and becomes at most a matter for philosophical tactics, the claim of revelation to the highest truth touches philosophy at its core and must affect its whole strategy. — Hans Jonas

Every step in life is merely part of a game. Every piece is necessary, but if you do not know how to control the game, then you become one of the pieces that are meant to be sacrificed. — Lionel Suggs

Our people have made the mistake of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods, or tactics, or strategy. We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as free humans in this society. — Malcolm X

The art of war is the art of deception. — Sun Tzu

If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep. — Sherwood Smith

this is the monumental error of counterinsurgency: despite its success absorbing the asymmetry introduced by guerilla tactics, it still continues to produce the figure of the "terrorist" based on what it is itself. And this is to our advantage, then, provided we don't allow ourselves to embody that figure. It's what all effective revolutionary strategy must accept as its point of departure. The failure of the American strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan bears witness. Counterinsurgency did such a good job of turning "the population" around that the Obama administration has to routinely and surgically assassinate, via drone, anything that might resemble an insurgent — Anonymous

The essence of the CEO's job is strategy, not tactics; plan, not do; policy, not implementation. — William Kraut

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is noise before defeat. — Sun Tzu

One of the problems we saw in the last presidential election in our party is that our nominee, while winning the election, which we ought never to forget, often lost sight of the difference between strategy and tactics. — Paul Begala

The game of football is one of strategy and tactics. — Woody Hayes

It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus. — Terry Pratchett

The barrier to our future is often the very plans that we've created to get there. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy. — George S. Patton

If your enemy has the power to see into the future, make sure you are the author of that future. — Lionel Suggs

Conform to the enemy's tactics until a favorable opportunity offers; then come forth and engage in a battle that shall prove decisive. — Sun Tzu

Most thoughtful,"...[he said] politely. This cheerfulness was ambiguous, Had she determined to ignore ...[the] coup entirely--an established tactic, most irritating to the innovator but hard to sustain over long periods of time--or had she already evolved her counter-strategy? — Tom Holt

Tactics involve calculations that can tax the human brain, but when you boil them down, they are actually the simplest part of chess and are almost trivial compared to strategy. — Garry Kasparov

Writing books for me is anyway much like a military campaign. I confess to fighting my way through with military metaphors. There is a strategy, an overall concept, and there are tactics along the way ... Tradition would say I was a 'child of Mars.' — James Hillman

Dr. Roboy, in Litvak's measured view, had a vice common to believers: He was all strategy and no tactics. He was prone to move for the sake of moving, too focused on the goal to bother with the intervening sequence. — Michael Chabon

Strategy is something that emerges from reality, while tactics might be chosen. — George Friedman

The most passionately anti-Obama Republican politicians and activists consider themselves the truest and purest of conservatives, and often unleash their scorn and fury on others who also call themselves conservative but differ on strategy and tactics. — John Podhoretz

Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it. — Frank Muir

Tactics wins battles. Strategy wins wars. — Pierce Brown

A true genius is my brother, for his ability to measure and adapt his imagination to knowledge is unbounded. He can turn laziness into tactics. He can drop tactics for strategy without anyone or anything realizing it. He can comprehend grand principles of creation effortlessly and flawlessly. His capacity for knowledge surpasses even my own, and it's not because he constantly takes steps forward. It's because he has unconsciously taught himself to understand the principles behind possibility and nothingness. That is a true genius. — Lionel Suggs

When God plays chess, you will notice that he never has to move a single piece ... in order to win. — Lionel Suggs

For me the starting point for everything - before strategy, tactics, theories, managing, organizing, philosophy, methodology, talent, or experience - is work ethic. Without one of significant magnitude, you're dead in the water. — Bill Walsh

Executives are paralyzed by the muddle. Few employees deep down in the company even know what the strategy is. And a closer look reveals that most plans don't contain a strategy at all but rather a smorgasbord of tactics that individually make sense but collectively don't add up to a unified, clear direction that sets a company apart - let alone makes the competition irrelevant. Does this sound like the strategic plans in your company? — W.Chan Kim

Our best-laid plans are often our worst-made decisions. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected . — Sun Tzu

You're a clever strategist, but not all battles require tricks. Sometimes the simplest way to kill something is to swim up to it and bite it in half. — Shaun Hick

Politicians will talk strategy and tactics and policies and programs until they're blue in the face, or you strangle them and they turn blue. — P. J. O'Rourke

For such people, finding a mate is like scoring a goal. You have to develop skills like talking cheesy, praising generously, and targeting properly. They are unable to see the opposite person as a human being. All they focus upon is their own strategy and tactics. For them, all the people on the opposite team are alike - except for looks, education and career. — Gracia Hunter

Tactics win battles. Strategy wins wars," I say.
"Oooo. I am Reaper. God of wolves. King of strategy." Mustang pinches my cheek. "You are just too adorable. — Pierce Brown

Message is more important than money. Issues are more central than image. Strategy matters more than tactics. Positives work better than negatives. Substance is more salient than scandal. Issues are more powerful than image, and strategy more important than spin. The more partisan you are, the less effective you will be. — Dick Morris

The world is a multiplicity, a harvest-field, a battle-ground; and thence arises through human contact ways of numbering, or mathematics, ways of tillage, or agriculture, ways of fighting, or military tactics and strategy, and these are incorporated in individuals as habits of life. — George Edward Woodberry

Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do. - Savielly Tartakover (Polish GM) — Katherine Neville

Thinking and planning is one side of life; doing is another. A man cannot be
doing all the time. — Mary Stewart

It is often possible to decide the issue of a battle merely by making an unexpected shift of one's main weight. — Erwin Rommel

The will of the United States can be shaken by suiciders ... and suiciders who are willing to drive up to a Red Cross center, a center of international help and aid and comfort, and just kill ... The strategy remains the same. The tactics to respond to more suiciders driving cars will alter on the ground. — George W. Bush

In a physical contest on the field of battle it is allowable to use tactics and strategy, to retreat as well as advance, to have recourse to a ruse as well as open attack; but in matters of principle there can be no tactics, there is one straight forward course to follow and that course must be found and followed without swerving to the end. — Terence MacSwiney