The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.

The supreme excellence is not to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles. The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies of your enemies without having to fight them.

When you shoot a bow and arrow, you aim at the clouds, not because you expect to hit them, but so that you may reach the distant target on the ground.

It is the business of a general to be quiet and thus ensure secrecy; upright and just, and thus maintain order.

The Art of War is self-explanatory

A kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.

It is a doctrine of war not to assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; not to presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible.