Quotes About Conflict

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

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

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.

All warfare is based on deception.

The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

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

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.

Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage.

Weapons are inauspicious instruments, not the tools of the enlightened. When there is no choice but to use them, it is best to be calm and free from greed, and not celebrate victory. Those who celebrate victory are bloodthirsty, and the bloodthirsty cannot have their way with the world.

I pee in the toilets of my enemies, so that when they flush my pee comes out

Where there are repeated wars, the people are weakened; when they score repeated victories, rulers become haughty. Let haughty rulers command weakened people, and rare is the nation that will not perish as a result.

In a similar way, The Art of War pinpoints anger and greed as fundamental causes of defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Solving large, difficult problems may earn you a reputation for skillful negotiation, but Sun Tzu asserts that this supposed achievement is actually a form of failure, and having true wisdom means preventing difficult problems from arising in the first place. Ironically

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

Do not press a desperate enemy.

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

Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.

There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited . . . What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.

Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays. In all history, there is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

Every animal with blood in its veins and horns on its head will fight when it is attacked.

Asked if an army can be made to imitate the SHUAI-JAN, I should answer, Yes. For the men of Wu and the men of Yueh are enemies; yet if they are crossing a river in the same boat and are caught by a storm, they will come to each other's assistance just as the left hand helps the right.

Those who win every battle are not really skillful—those who render others' armies helpless without fighting are the best of all.