Sun Tzu Quotes about Fighting

If a battle can not be won do not fight it.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

One mark of a great soldier is that he fight on his own terms or fights not at all.

A warrior who is prepared to fight must also be prepared to die.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

If you fight with all your might, there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your corner

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost

If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.

To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

In desperate position, you must fight.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

He who knows things, and in fighting puts his knowledge into practice, will win his battles. He who knows them not, nor practices them, will surely be defeated.

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

To Subdue an enemy without fighting is the greatest of skills

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

The best general is the one who never fights.

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight and if not: split and re-evaluate.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

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

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.

Do not press an enemy at bay. Prince Fu Ch'ai said: "Wild beasts, when at bay, fight desperately. How much more is this true of men! If they know there is no alternative, they will fight to the death.

To persuade your enemy to (retreat) before the fight is to defeat them even before the battle begins. An enemy made ally is no longer an enemy.

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.

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.