Quotes from Sun Tzu

An outstanding perfection is not in winning every battle, but in defeating an enemy before entering a battle.

Know your enemy, know yourself, and the victory will not be questionable even in hundreds of battles.

He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. 14. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.

Just as water, which carries a boat from bank to bank, may also be the means of sinking it, so reliance on spies, while production of great results, is oft-times the cause of utter destruction

Those who know themselves, but not the enemy, shall achieve the same amount of defeats and victories.

Those who don't know themselves nor the enemy shall suffer failure in every battle.

The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources. He controls his soldiers by his authority, knits them together by good faith, and by rewards makes them serviceable. If faith decays, there will be disruption; if rewards are deficient, commands will not be respected.

When the men are united, the brave cannot advance alone, the cowardly cannot retreat alone.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

Invulnerability depends on us, vulnerability on our adversary.

So much for operations in salt-marches.

You can know victory and still you won't achieve it.

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

A skillful defenders hides within ninefold earth; a skillful attacker moves above ninefold sky

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, victor of El Alamein and commander of land forces on D-Day, wrote extensively on The Art of War in his monumental A History of Warfare.

As oportunidades multiplicam-se à medida que são agarradas.

Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuver. What is difficult about maneuver is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage. Thus, march by an indirect route and divert the enemy by enticing him with a bait. So doing, you may set out after he does and arrive before him. One able to do this understands the strategy of the direct and the indirect.

The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

One who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage will not attain it.

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

A evolução do Homem passa, necessariamente, pela busca do conhecimento.

Conservare la disciplina e la calma, attendere i primi segnali di disordine e chiasso nell'esercito nemico: in questo consiste l'arte dell'autocontrollo.

Those who do not know the conditions of mountains and forests, hazardous defiles, marshes and swamps, cannot conduct the march of an army. Those who do not use local guides are unable to obtain the advantages of the ground.

The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete.