Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.

Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) was Chief of Staff of the Prussian General Staff from 1857 to 1871 and then of the Great General Staff (GGS) from 1871 to 1888. He was an architect of Germany's Wars of Unification (1864–71). He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew, Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke.

Quotes

• Der ewige Friede ist ein Traum, und nicht einmal ein schöner, und der Krieg ist ein Glied in Gottes Weltordnung. In ihm entfalten sich die edelsten Tugenden des Menschen, Mut und Entsagung, Pflichttreue und Opferwilligkeit mit Einsetzung des Lebens. Ohne den Krieg würde die Welt im Materialismus versumpfen.
  • Permanent peace is a dream and not even a beautiful one, and war is a law of God's order in the world, by which the noblest virtues of man, courage and self-denial, loyalty and self-sacrifice, even to the point of death, are developed. Without war the world would deteriorate into materialism.
  • Letter to Dr J. K. Bluntschli, 11 December 1880, translated by Mary Herms in Field-Marshall Count Helmuth von Moltke as a Correspondent (1893) p. 272

• The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. In this sense one should understand Napoleon's saying: "I have never had a plan of operations."
  Therefore no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.
  • Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus.
  • "On Strategy" (1871)/"Über Strategie" (1871), as translated in Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings (1993) by Daniel J. Hughes and Harry Bell, p. 92; German collected in: Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschriften, H.13 (1890), hier zitiert nach: Militārische Werke, Band 2, Teil 2. Mittler & Sohn Berlin 1900. S. 291 books.google
  • Paraphrased variants:
  • No plan survives contact with the enemy.
    • Paraphrased in The Swordbearers : Studies in Supreme Command in the First World War (1963) by Correlli Barnett, p. 35
  • No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
    • As quoted in Donnybrook : The Battle of Bull Run, 1861 (2005) by David Detzer, p. 233

Strategy is a system of expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline.

• Strategy is a system of expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline. It is the translation of knowledge to practical life, the improvement of the original leading thought in accordance with continually changing situations.
  • "On Strategy" (1871), as translated in Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings (1993) by Daniel J. Hughes and Harry Bell, p. 124
  • Variants:
  • War is a matter of expedients.
    • As quoted in "Nothing Went According To Plan" by Jim Lacey in Time magazine (15 April 2003)
  • If in war, from the beginning of the operations, everything is uncertain except such will and energy as the commander carries in himself, there cannot possibly be practical value for strategy in general principles, rules derived from them and systems built up upon the rules. … Strategy is a system of expedients. It is more than science, it is the translation of science into practical life, the development of an original leading thought in accordance with the ever-changing circumstances.
    • As quoted in Government and the War (1918) by Spenser Wilkinson

• We may add that the Poland of the fifteenth century was one of the most civilised states of Europe.
  • 'Poland. A historical sketch'

• The Jews form a state, and, obeying their own laws, they evade those of their host country. The Jews always consider an oath regarding a Christian not binding. During the Campaign of 1812 the Jews were spies, they were paid by both sides, they betrayed both sides.
  • See The Jews by Zuhdī Fātiḥ

Quotes about Moltke the Elder

In silence deeds do grow.

• Der euch gewappnet und gewehrt, Bedenkt, die ihr ihm naht: Es stuetzt der Friede sich auf`s Schwert, im Schweigen waechst die Tat.
  • Those who have armed and defended you, consider, you who approach him: Peace rests upon the sword; in silence deeds do grow.
  • Rudolf Alexander Schröder's inscription for Moltke's equestrian statue at the Liebfrauenkirche, Bremen

• Helmuth von Moltke was born in 1800, technically the last year of the 18th century. [...] There's a wonderful irony here: Moltke's nickname was 'der große Schweiger' (the great silent one), because he had a reputation for speaking very little; and yet, of all the hundreds of millions of people born in the 18th century, his is the only voice we can hear today.
  • Patrick Feaster, "The 1880s Speak: Recent Developments in Archeophony", Annual Conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Rochester, New York (19 May 2012) [1]