Action in war is like movement in a resistant element. Just as the simplest and most natural of movements, walking, cannot easily be performed in wat… - Carl von Clausewitz

... the role of determination is to limit the agonies of doubt and the perils of hesitation when the motives for action are inadequate.

If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of linked engagements each leading to the next, but instead succumb to the idea that the capture of certain geographical points or the seizure of undefended provinces are of value in themselves, we are liable to regard them as windfall profits. In so doing, and in ignoring the fact that they are links in a continuous chain of events, we also ignore the possibility that their possession may later lead to definite disadvantages.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.