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Quotation from On War by Carl von Clausewitz
“The young soldier cannot reach any of these different strata of danger without feeling that the light of reason does not move here in the same medium, that it is not refracted in the same manner as in speculative contemplation”
On War, Book I, Ch. 4, Of Danger in War, trans. J. J. Graham (1873), rev. F. N. Maude (1908)
After leading the reader from the general's hill to the infantry line under fire, Clausewitz describes fear distorting cognition.
Citation: "The young soldier cannot reach any of these different strata of danger without feeling that the light of reason does not move here in the same medium, that it is not refracted in the same manner as in speculative contemplation" — Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Book I, Ch. 4, Of Danger in War, trans. J. J. Graham (1873), rev. F. N. Maude (1908). (id on-war-q7)
Portrait: Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), Wilhelm Wach, Public domain.
