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When you march into France, let the last man on the right brush the Channel with his sleeve.

— Alfred von Schlieffen

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More quotes by Alfred von Schlieffen

Flank attack is the essence of the whole history of warfare.

A man is born, and not made, a strategist.

It must come to a fight. Only make the right wing strong.

The principles of strategy remain unchanged. The enemy's front is not the objective. The essential thing is to crush the enemy’s flanks...and complete the extermination by attack upon his rear.

To win, we must endeavour to be the stronger of the two at the point of impact. Our only hope of this lies in making our own choice of operations, not in waiting passively for whatever the enemy chooses for us.

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