Quotes By Sun Tzu

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.

Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.

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.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

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.

The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man.

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

You have to believe in yourself.

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

All warfare is based on deception.

If we know that our own men are in a condition to attack, but are unaware that the enemy is not open to attack, we have gone only halfway towards victory.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.

Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?

For 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.

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.

If fighting is sure to result in victory, than you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

All war is based on deception.

Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge.

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and you know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you now Heaven and you know Earth, you may make your victory complete.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

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.

The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.

There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.

For them to perceive the advantage of defeating the enemy, they must also have their rewards.

There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.