“The opportunity to defeat the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

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

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.

In war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.

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

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

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

To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him.