...in war, the advantages and disadvantages of a single action could only be determined by the final balance. - Carl von Clausewitz

...any move made in a state of tension will be of more important, and will have more results, than it would have made in a state of equilibrium. In times of maximum tension this importance will rise to an infinite degree.

With uncertainty in one scale, courage and self-confidence should be thrown into the other to correct the balance. The greater they are, the greater the margin that can be left for accidents.

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.