To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.
If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.
There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.
Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.
“To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.”
In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.
“The natural formation of the country is the soldier’s best ally”
He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.
Victory usually goes to the army who has better trained officers and men.
Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.
Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.