Sheridan

"Sheridan once explained the reason of General Grant's victories by saying that 'while his opponents were kept fully employed wondering what he was going to do, HE was thinking most of what he was going to do himself.'"
-Gen William Sherman, as quoted in The Art of War

Sun Tzu

"As Tu Mu says, 'to plan secretly, to move surreptitiously, to foil the enemy's intentions and balk his schemes, so that at last the day may be won without shedding a drop of blood.'"
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Tolstoy

'As Sterne says, "We don't love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we have done them."'
-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

MacKay

"No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action; and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity."
-Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

MacKay

"Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity.  Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later."
-Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

Twenge

"Research consistently finds that people who focus on status and materialism are more likely to be depressed, and those who focus on close relationships are happier."
-Jean M. Twenge, Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement

Sun Tzu

"All warfare is based on deception."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Sun Tzu

"If pacific negotiations are in progress, warlike preparations should have been made beforehand."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Kilcullen

"There is a demonstrated need to achieve better balance between the military and nonmilitary elements of U.S. national power, and to balance expensive, but rarely needed capabilities for conventional war-fighting with cheap but frequently needed capabilities for stabilization, reconstruction and unconventional warfare operations."
-David Kilcullen, "The Accidental Guerrilla"