If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Sun Tzu - Battle - Planning - Fighting - Strategy - War - Enemy - Prepared - Attack - Strength - Weakness

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
Sun Tzu - Fighting - Planning - Losing - Victory - War - Strength - Wish

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it.
Sun Tzu - Soldier - War - Enemy - Destroy - Good - Army

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack.. the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.
Sun Tzu - Battle - Fighting - Attack - Victory

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Sun Tzu - Winning - Planning - Victory - Soldier - War - Prepared - Positive

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities. It is best to win without fighting.
Sun Tzu - Winning - Fighting - Victory


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