"A skillful commander?" replied Pierre. "Why, one who foresees all contingencies . . . and foresees the adversary's intentions."
"But that's impossible," said Prince Andrew as if it were a matter settled long ago. Pierre looked at him with surprise.
"And yet they say that war is like a game of chess," he remarked.
"Yes," replied Prince Andrew, "but with this little difference, that in chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight is always stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strengths of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone."
- From War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
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