Boldness

Abstract

Book III. Chapter VI. Boldness is the noblest of virtues. Amongst large masses, boldness is a force, the special cultivation of which can never be to the detriment of other forces. The higher the rank the more necessary it is that boldness should be accompanied by a reflective mind. Boldness becomes of rarer occurrence the higher we ascend the scale of rank. In those motives to bold action which arise from the pressure of necessity we must make a distinction. We think that is impossible to imagine a distinguished general without boldness. The spirit of boldness can exist in an army, either because it is in the people, or because it has been generated in a successful war conducted by able generals. Only when it strikes at the root of obedience, when it treats with contempt the orders of superior authority, that it must be repressed as a dangerous evil, not on its own account but on account of the act of disobedience, for there is nothing in war which is of greater importance that obedience. A nation can hope to have a strong position in the political world only if its character and practice in actual war mutually support each other in constant reciprocal action.