Quotes About Warfare

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. [Chang Yu said: "Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive.

The reason troops slay the enemy is because they are enraged.

When Sun Tzu spoke of victory, this is what he meant—the prevention or quick resolution of conflict, not the conquering of your opponent.

When Lionel Giles began his translation of Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR, the work was virtually unknown in Europe. Its introduction to Europe began in 1782 when a French Jesuit Father living in China, Joseph Amiot, acquired a copy of it, and translated it into French. It was not a good translation because, according to Dr. Giles, [I]t contains a great deal that Sun Tzu did not write, and very little indeed of what he did. The first translation into English was published

The Giles' edition of the ART OF WAR, as stated above, was a scholarly work.

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.

65. If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.

Si vos ennemis sont plus puissants et plus forts que vous, vous ne les attaquerez point, vous éviterez avec un grand soin ce qui peut conduire à un engagement général ; vous cacherez toujours avec une extrême attention l'état où vous vous trouverez.

Invincibility depends on one's self; the enemy's vulnerability on him. It follows that those skilled in war can make themselves invincible but cannot cause an enemy to be certainly vulnerable. Therefore it is said that one may know how to win, but cannot necessarily do so.

Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical. No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible.

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power. It is sufficient to estimate the enemy situation correctly and to concentrate your strength to capture him. There is no more to it than this. He who lacks foresight and underestimates his enemy will surely be captured by him.

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

purposely ignored by him. [16] Tu Mu's conjecture seems to be based

to concentrate or to divide your troops, must be decided by circumstances.      17. Let your rapidity be that of the wind, [The simile is doubly

The general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth; he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven.

is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.

When I wish to give battle, my enemy, even though protected by high walls and deep moats, cannot help but engage me, for I attack a position he must succor. When I wish to avoid battle I may defend myself simply by drawing a line on the ground; the enemy will be unable to attack me because I divert him from going where he wishes.

holding a position from which the enemy is trying to dislodge you, or perhaps, as Tu Yu says, when he is trying to entice you into a

such astonishing rapidity that he was able to occupy a commanding position on the North hill before the enemy had

On ne saurait tenir les troupes longtemps en campagne, sans porter un très grand préjudice à l'État et sans donner une atteinte mortelle à sa propre réputation.

Je dis plus : la meilleure politique guerrière est de prendre un État intact ; une politique inférieure à celle-ci consisterait à le ruiner.

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

Connais ton ennemi et connais-toi toi-même ; eussiez-vous cent guerres à soutenir, cent fois vous serez victorieux. Si tu ignores ton ennemi et que tu te connais toi-même, tes chances de perdre et de gagner seront égales. Si tu ignores à la fois ton ennemi et toi-même, tu ne compteras tes combats que par tes défaites.