Information in War
"The foundation of all our ideas and actions," but "in a few words, most reports are false." "When in the thick of war itself one report follows hard upon the heels of another, it is fortunate if these reports in contradicting each other show a certain balance of probability." In another passage, in order to illustrate this perpetual uncertainty under which all decisions in war have to be made, he compares two opposing commanders to two men fighting in a dark room and groping uncertainly for one another.
"These things which as elements meet together in the atmosphere of war and make it a resistant medium for every activity, we have designated danger, bodily exertion, information, and friction."[37] He never loses sight of this; it pervades everything he writes.