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The effect exerted by paper plans on the unfolding of events must never be exaggerated. Plans do not determine outcomes. The happenings set in motion by a particular scheme of action will rarely be those narrowly intended, are intrinsically unpredictable and will ramify far beyond the anticipation of the instigator. So it was to prove with the Schlieffen plan.

— John Keegan The First World War (1998)

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Europe is once again, as it was in 1900, prosperous, peaceful and a power for good in the world.

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The Somme marked the end of an age of vital optimism in British life that has never been recovered.

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War’s rancours are quick to bite and slow to heal.

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Lightning victories, experience tells, store up evil consequences, usually for the victors.

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The First World War inaugurated the manufacture of mass deaths that the Second brought to a pitiless consummation.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Keegan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.