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War & Peace Quote by Julius Caesar

"Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces"

About this Quote

Caesar is selling humility and control in the same breath. By personifying Fortune as an actor with “a great deal of power,” he nods to the unpredictability his audience already fears: war is a machine that can lurch off course because of a gust of wind, a missed signal, a minor delay. But he’s not surrendering agency; he’s laundering it. If outcomes can pivot on “very slight forces,” then a commander’s job is to create conditions where small advantages cascade - and where small mishaps can be blamed on Fortune rather than flawed judgment.

The intent is practical propaganda, the kind Caesar perfected in his commentaries: validate the volatility of campaigning while reinforcing the need for decisive leadership. The subtext is a warning to rivals and a reassurance to allies. Don’t mistake today’s balance of power for stability; tomorrow’s “slight force” could be an unexpected alliance, a sudden panic, a river crossing gone wrong. In Caesar’s world, the margins are where empires are won.

Context matters because late-Republic Rome was a political knife fight fought with legions. Calling on Fortuna is not superstition; it’s rhetoric aimed at a public that understood history as a series of reversals. Caesar frames contingency as a governing reality, not an excuse. He’s quietly justifying audacity: if tiny inputs can produce huge shifts, then bold moves aren’t recklessness - they’re rational wagers in a system already rigged for instability.

Quote Details

TopicFree Will & Fate
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Caesar, Julius. (2026, January 17). Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fortune-which-has-a-great-deal-of-power-in-other-25761/

Chicago Style
Caesar, Julius. "Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fortune-which-has-a-great-deal-of-power-in-other-25761/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fortune-which-has-a-great-deal-of-power-in-other-25761/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Julius Add to List
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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC) was a Leader from Rome.

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