Quotes About Tactics

Every battle is won before it is fought.

It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. 3.    The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field. 4.    These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.

6.    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 that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on. [That is, with rapidity. Only one who knows the disastrous effects of a long war can realize the supreme importance of rapidity in bringing it to a close. Only

All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, pretend to be incapable; when active, inactive; when near, make the enemy believe that you are far away; when far away; that you are near.

Therefore, the skillful commander imposes his will on the enemy by making the enemy come to him instead of being brought to the enemy.

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.

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

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.

Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight; do not attack soldiers whose temper is keen.

Their action and inaction are matters of strategy, and they cannot be pleased or angered.

Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards. [Tu Mu says: Rewards

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

The victorious army is victorious first and seeks battle later; the defeated army seeks battle first and seeks victory later.

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

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

King's favorite concubines at the head of each. He then bade them all take spears in their hands, and addressed them thus: "I presume you know the difference between front and back, right hand and left hand?

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not

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

Master Sun So it is said that if you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

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.