_Situations always should be contemplated as they EXIST, never as they
OUGHT to be, or, perhaps, MAY be._
In every important juncture, each step must be profoundly considered; as
little as possible should be left to chance.
Particularly, must one never be inflated and rendered careless and
negligent by success; nor made spiritless and fearful by reverses. At all
times the General should see things only as they are and attempt what
is dictated by that Strategetic Principle which dominates the given
situation. Fortune often does the rest.
* * * * *
_“Napoleon bending over and sometimes lying at full length upon his
map, with a pair of dividers opened to a distance on the scale of from
17 to 20 miles, equal to 22 to 25 miles over country, and marking the
positions of his own and of the hostile armies by sticking into the map
pins surmounted by little balls made of diverse colored sealing wax; in
the twinkling of an eye calculated those wonderful concentrations of his
Corps d’armee upon decisive points and dictated those instructions to his
Marshals which in themselves are a title to glory.”--Baron de Jomini._