Quotes

“War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.”

― Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general and military theorist

”The public was smiling, Tom was smiling, I was smiling… but I was smiling because I was winning!”

― Anna Cramling, Swedish chess player and chess personality

“I want to keep the old chess game. But just making a change so the starting positions are mixed, so it’s not degenerated down to memorization and prearrangement like it is today.”

― Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster and the inventor of what is now called Chess960

“No, No, chess is not a game. Chess is a well-defined form of computation. You may not be able to work out the answers, but in theory there must be a solution, a right procedure in any position. Now, real games,’ he said, ‘are not like that at all. Real life is not like that. Real life consists of bluffing, of little tactics of deception, of asking yourself what is the other man going to think I mean to do. And that is what games are about in my theory.”

― John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician, game theorist, etc.

“War is a profane thing.”

― Norman Schwarzkopf, American general

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and president

“Life, like backgammon, is constant decision-making under uncertainty.”

― Neil Kazaross, American backgammon player

“Chess has a tiny number of degrees of freedom compared to reality: only 64 squares, no fog of war, no tech tree, no terrain differences, same starting pieces & positions every time and you can’t invent new pieces during the game. All of those factors and more are present in reality. […] “

― Elon Musk, African-American business person

“Quickness is the essence of the war.”

― Sun Tzu, Chinese general and military theorist

“Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.“

― Duke of Wellington, British general

“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else. For whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and opening must be studied in relation to the end game.”

― José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess grandmaster

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

― Erwin Rommel, German general

“I’ve always believed in numbers and the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask, what truly is logic? Who decides reason?”

― John Nash, American mathematician

“In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes.”

― Julius Caesar, Roman general and emperor

“In my profession you have to mystify the enemy.”

― Bernard Law Montgomery, British general

“Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.”

― George Patton, American general

“Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless.”

― Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess grandmaster

“Lack of patience is probably the most common reason for losing a game, or drawing games that should have been won.”

― Bent Larsen, Danish chess grandmaster

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

― Alexander the Great, Macedonian general

“You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.”

― Napoleon Bonaparte, French general

“Gentleman you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room.”

― Merkin Muffley, American President in “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”

“The war is started by career soldiers, and finished by teachers, engineers, accountants.”

― Valery Zaluzhny, Ukranian general

“You can influence the law of probability with your mind [sic].”

― Baron Vernon Ball, backgammon writer

“I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake.”

― Emanuel Lasker, German chess champion and mathematician

“It is not the business of generals to shoot one another.”

― Duke of Wellington, British general