Quotes About Warfare

8.    The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice. [Once war is declared, he will

When you start a fire, be to windward of it. Do not attack from the leeward.

By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy's must be divided.

Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive." He adds: "Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack." It

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground: (1) Dispersive ground; (2) Facile ground; (3) Contentious ground; (4) Open ground; (5) Ground of intersecting highways; (6) Serious ground; (7) Difficult ground; (8) Hemmed-in ground; (9) Desperate ground.

the Completer and Wu Wang all used spears and battle-axes in order to succor their generation. The SSU-MA FA says: If one man slay another of set purpose, he himself

In raiding and plundering be like fire, is immovability like a mountain.

Those who are able to adapt and change in accord with the enemy and achieve victory are called divine.

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. 7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.

He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

Thus the energy developed by good fighting men is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So much on the subject of energy.

When you look into the signs of war, you find they are in the mind. When there is unexpressed anger in the heart, this is already war! Hateful looks and angry faces are war; boastful words and shoving matches are war. Exaggerated contention and aggressive combat are war.

Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

Go forth armed without determining strategy, and you will destroy yourself in battle.

Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.

With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem. 8.

Victory in war is apparent to all, but the science of ensuring victory is a mysterious secret, generally unknown.

Therefore victory in war is not repetitious, but adapts its form endlessly.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.     IV.

One who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at it.

He wins his battles by making no mistakes.

A victorious army opposed to a routed one, is as a pound's weight placed in the scale against a single grain.

Confront your soldiers with the deed itself; never let them know your design. When the outlook is bright, bring it before their eyes; but tell them nothing when the situation is gloomy.

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