Quotes About Warfare

Conceal your dispositions, and your condition will remain secret, which leads to victory;  show your dispositions, and your condition will become patent, which leads to defeat.

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

The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy. Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.

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

The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points;

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

Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.

It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.

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.

It is best to keep one's own state intact; to crush the enemy's state is only second best.

One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful, subduing the other's military without battle is the most skillful.

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

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

Standing on the defensive indicates insufficient strength; attacking, a superabundance of strength.

Supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

All warfare is based on deception.

Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away...

You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.

Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them

To begin by bluster, but afterwards to take fright at the enemy's numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.

Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

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