Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Enemy
Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Defense, War
Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Soldiers
To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Excellence
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Defeat, Victory
A leader leads by example not by Force.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Leadership
Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Unhappiness
Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Winning, Winners
All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: War
The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.
—Sun Tzu
It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.
—Sun Tzu
To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: War
If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result is victory, then you must not fight, even at the ruler’s bidding.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Victory
Therefore a victorious army first wins and then seeks battle; a defeated army first battles and then seeks victory.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Army
Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Change, Great
If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Navy, The Military, Army
So it is said that if you know others, and know yourself,
you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles;
if you do not know others but know yourself,
you win one and lose one;
if you do not know others and do not know yourself,
you will be imperiled in every single battle.
—Sun Tzu
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Persuasion, Excellence, Battle
Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Victory
17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
18. Hence the saying: 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.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: War, Enemy
To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Enemy
All war is based on deception.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Deception
Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
—Sun Tzu
If I wish to engage, then the enemy, for all his high ramparts and deep moat, cannot avoid engagement; I attack that which he is obliged to rescue.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: War
The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Service
The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Quality, Decisions
There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.
—Sun Tzu
O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Secrets
So the important thing in a military operation is victory, not persistence.
—Sun Tzu
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
—Sun Tzu
Topics: Defeat, War
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