Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted.

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

Be the first to seize intersecting ground, that is ground which lies the intersections of borders or intersections of main thoroughfares of commerce and travel. Your occupation of it gives you access to all who border it and all who would covet it. On intersecting ground, if you establish alliances you are safe, if you lose alliances you are in peril.

Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.

There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

Unless you enter the tiger's lair, you cannot get hold of the tiger's cub's.

There are only five notes in the musical scale, but their variations are so many that they cannot all be heard. There are only five basic colors, but their variations are so many that they cannot all be seen. There are only five basic flavors, but their variations are so many that they cannot all be tasted. There are only two kinds of charge in battle, the unorthodox surprise attack and the orthodox direct attack, but variations of the unorthodox and the orthodox are endless. The unorthodox and the orthodox give rise to each other, like a beginningless circle-who could exhaust them?