Martin Van Creveld quotes
-
“The combination of professionalism and technology may also result in narrow-minded specialization more suited to a debating society than to an organization whose task it is to cope with, and indeed live in, the dangerous and uncertain environment of war.”
-- Martin Van CreveldSource : Martin Van Creveld (2010). “Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present”, p.149, Simon and Schuster
-
“The enemy resembles us. Therefore, he needs to be approached not as an assembly of 'targets' to be destroyed one by one; but as a living, intelligent entity capable of acting and reacting.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“Never' is too much of a word. Nothing lasts forever.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“Except when war is waged in a desert, noncombatants, also known as civilians or "the people," constitute the great majority of those affected.”
-- Martin Van CreveldSource : Martin Van Creveld (2009). “Transformation of War”, p.72, Simon and Schuster
-
-
“In the future as in the past, both Clausewitz and Sun Tzu will undoubtedly have a lot to offer.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot.”
-- Martin Van CreveldSource : "Sharon’s Last Option". Interview with Jennifer Byrne, www.counterpunch.org. November 16, 2002.
-
“Sun Tzu does not need my praise. His work has lived for over two thousand years, and will surely live for another two thousand without any help from me.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself.”
-- Martin Van CreveldSource : "Sharon’s Last Option". Interview with Jennifer Byrne, www.counterpunch.org. November 16, 2002.
-
-
“Assuming China does not become destabilized and continues to grow, it will no doubt develop a military program in proportion to its resources.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“It is simply not true that war is solely a means to an end, nor do people necessarily fight in order to obtain this objective or that. In fact, the opposite is true: people very often take up one objective or another precisely in order that they may fight.”
-- Martin Van CreveldSource : Martin Van Creveld (2009). “Transformation of War”, p.226, Simon and Schuster
-
“As history since Hiroshima shows, the best, perhaps the only, way to curb war is to deter it with such overwhelming force as to turn it from a struggle into suicide.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“A world without war is not in the cards.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
-
“Obviously, we don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons and I don't know if they're developing them, but if they're not developing them, they're crazy.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“War is the greatest fun man can have with his pants on.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets of our air force.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself. They are in a lose/lose situation. If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot. So here is a dilemma which others have suffered before us, and for which as far as I can see there is simply no escape.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
-
“Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under.”
-- Martin Van Creveld -
“I want to put any number of assorted 'ists' - such as relativists, deconstructionists, destructivists, postmodernists, the more maudlin kind of pacifists and feminists - firmly in their place.”
-- Martin Van Creveld
You may also like:
-
Adolf Hitler
Former Chancellor of Germany -
Antoine-Henri Jomini
Writer -
Carl von Clausewitz
Military Historian -
Daniel Kahneman
Psychologist -
Frederick The Great
Military Commander -
John Keegan
Historian -
Martin Buber
Philosopher -
Moshe Dayan
Defense Minister of Israel -
Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Commander -
Niccolo Machiavelli
Historian -
Otto von Bismarck
Statesman -
Robert Aumann
Mathematician -
Sun Tzu
Strategist -
Thucydides
Historian -
Orit Gadiesh
Business consultant -
Saharon Shelah
Mathematician