Sun Tzu Quotes - Page 4

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Management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization.

They [spies] cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.

First learn to become invincible, then wait for your enemy's moment of vulnerability.

Swift as the wind. Quiet as the forest. Conquer like the fire. Steady as the mountain

In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.

Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

Fierce language and pretentious advances are signs that the enemy is about to retreat.

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

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

Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.

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

Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.

Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

If their forces are substantial, prepare for them; if their forces are strong, avoid them.

Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this.

Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted.

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

It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled.

Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger.

Winning isn't enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.

Go into emptiness, strike voids, bypass what he defends hit him where he does not expect you.

Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him

Perfection in war lies in so sapping your opponents will that he surrenders without fighting.

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

Of all those in the army close to the commander, none is more intimate than the secret agent.

It is ten thousand times cheaper to pay the best spies lavishly than even a tiny army poorly.

If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

Thus those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle .... They conquer by strategy.

Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.

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

When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.

Appraise war in terms of the fundamental factors. The first of these factors is moral influence.

He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.

Don't flail against the world, use it. Flexibility is the operative principle in the art of war.

Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.

When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.

Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

The control of large numbers is possible, and like unto that of small numbers, if we subdivide them.

The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.

If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst.

If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.

Convince your enemy that he will gain very little by attacking you; this will diminish his enthusiasm

Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all.

One who has few must prepare against the enemy; one who has many makes the enemy prepare against him.

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.

The art of giving orders is not to try to rectify the minor blunders and not be swayed by petty doubts.

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