War & Peace Quote by George Washington

Washington’s line reads like battlefield common sense, but it’s also a political worldview in miniature: control the terrain early, because once power settles in, it hardens.

On its face, he’s giving operational advice from an 18th-century war where “posting” meant taking up a position and fortifying it. The rhythm of the sentence does the work. “Prevent” is brisk, almost tidy; “dislodge” is heavy, physical, expensive. He’s translating the asymmetry of conflict into plain language: defense and anticipation are cheaper than cleanup and heroics. The subtext is an impatience with romantic notions of war as noble comeback. Washington is selling discipline over drama.

Context matters. As commander of an outmatched army, he lived on the edge of being fixed in place and crushed. For the Continental Army, winning often meant not losing: avoiding decisive traps, denying the British strongpoints, forcing them to fight on unfavorable terms. The quote reflects a strategic temperament shaped by scarce resources, unreliable militias, and the reality that one bad occupation - a river crossing, a ridge, a city - could change the campaign’s physics overnight.

The line also foreshadows a broader Washingtonian suspicion of entrenched positions in civic life. Institutions, factions, foreign influence: once “in possession,” they’re stubborn. It’s an early American argument for vigilance and prevention, less a call to paranoia than a reminder that the cost of delay compounds fast - in war, and in governance.