A general may succeed for some time in persuading his superiors that h — Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell

"No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one."

"The beginnings of any war by the British (still as Saxon slow at starting, still as weirdly wont to win [The Old Way - Adm Ronald Hopwood]) are always marked by improvidence, improvisations, and too often, alas, by impossibilities being asked of the troops."

"I can only say that I have always believed in doing everything possible in war to mystify and mislead one’s opponent…."

"A bold general may be lucky, but no general can be lucky unless he is bold. The general who allows himself to be bound and hampered by regulations is unlikely to win a battle."

"Behind an inarticulate and ruggedly orthodox exterior Wavell concealed one of the most fertile minds ever possessed by a British senior officer."

"The British have been a free people and are still a comparatively free people; and though we are not, thank Heaven, a military nation, this tradition of freedom gives to our junior leaders in war a priceless gift of initiative. So long as this initiative is not cramped by too many regulations, by too much formalism, we shall, I trust, continue to win our battles – sometimes in spite of our higher commanders."