Quotes About Strategy

The only thing more dangerous then your enemy knowing how powerful you are, is your enemy not knowing how powerful you are.

If sheer strength is your only contribution to war, you will ultimately be defeated.

Politics is an alternative to war and if you're in it, you live it as such. You win some & you lose at times.

To the issues of friendship, love, business and war, "surprise" is the optimistic solution.

If you do not take opportunity to advance and reward the deserving, your subordinates will not carry out your commands, and disaster will ensue.

mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy

If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.

When your army has crossed the border, you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.

If there is disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak.

the worst calamities that befall an army arise from hesitation

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.

We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.

Whether in an advantageous position or a disadvantageous one, the opposite state should be always present to your mind.

When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is COLLAPSE.

The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.

We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country -- its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps.

Danger has a bracing effect.

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

Be stern in the council-chamber, [Show no weakness, and insist on your plans being ratified by the sovereign.] so that you may control the situation.

When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.

Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive.

If his forces are united, separate them.

who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits