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

"If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive;and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attachedto you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be unless."

"One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage."

"Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared."

"Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy."

"The art of war is the art of deception."

"Every battle is won before it is fought."

"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."

"Rewards for good service should not be deferred a single day."

"So long as victory can be attained, stupid haste is preferable to clever dilatoriness."

"There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble."

"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."

"Who wishes to fight must first count the cost."

"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."

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

"If you do not take opportunity to advance and reward the deserving, your subordinates will not carry out your commands, and disaster will ensue."

"Attack is the secret of defense, defense is the planning of an attack."

"The worst calamities that befall an army arise from hesitation."

"When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is COLLAPSE."

"Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."

"Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack."

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

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

"All war is deception."

"Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance."

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

"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."

"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."

"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories."

"If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak."

"Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust."

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

"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."

"When you start a fire, be to windward of it. Do not attack from the leeward."

"Do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat."

"We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country -- its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps."

"Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment - that which they cannot anticipate."

"You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended."

"Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay, is desperate ground."

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

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

"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."

"These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand."

"Be where your enemy is not."

"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."

"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."

"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."

"He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared."

"The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach."

"If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve."