In the book “One Hundred Days” by Admiral Sandy Woodward (Memoirs of the
Falklands Battle Group Commander), under a photograph of Captain John
Coward, Captain of the guided-missile frigate H.M.S. BRILLIANT, the
caption says….and his motto was well-known “The essence of war is
violence. Moderation in war is imbcility”.

I don’t know whether he said it first, or whether he adopted somebody
else’s saying as his motto.

>From Michael Pryce, Wellington, New Zealand.