All battles are won before they start.

When you do battle, even if you are winning, if you continue for a long time it will dull your forces and blunt you edge...If you keep your armies out in the field for a long time, your supplies will be insufficient. Transportation of provisions itself consumes 20 times the amount transported.

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

Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow...they have form but are formless. They are skilled in both planning and adapting and need not fear the result of a thousand battles: for they win in advance, defeating those that have already lost.

There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle

Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.