Sun Tzu Quotes about Art - Page 4

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack.. the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.

When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporising ground.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.

As water shapes its flow in accordance with the ground, so an army manages its victory in accordance with the situation of the enemy.

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is death.

In a position of this sort, even though the enemy should offer us an attractive bait, it will be advisable not to stir forth, but rather to retreat, thus enticing the enemy in his turn; then, when part of his army has come out, we may deliver our attack with advantage.

In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace. The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.

It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible.

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.

Should one ask: 'how do I cope with a well-ordered enemy host about to attack me?' I reply: seize something he cherishes and he will conform to your desires.

The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

Should the enemy forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.

When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food.

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

Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.

When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or not he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.

The Art of War is self-explanatory

Ground which can be freely traversed by both sides is called accessible.

The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

Ground which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy is called entangling.

One who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage will not attain it.

If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need to do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way.