Sun Tzu Quotes.
In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.
Wait by the river long enough and the body of your enemy will float by you.
It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.
Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.
The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
All wars are won or lost before they are ever fought.
Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.
The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
Sweat more during peace: bleed less during war
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.
The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more intimate than the secret agent; of all rewards none more liberal than those given to secret agents; of all matters none is more confidential than those relating to secret operations.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
