“In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.”

Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.

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

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

The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

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

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

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

Move swift as the wind and closely-formed as the wood. Attack like the fire and be still as the mountain.