Fighting with a large army under your command is nowise different from fighting with a small one: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.

If I am able to determine the enemy's dispositions while at the same time I conceal my own, then I can concentrate and he must divide.

Victory is the main object in war.

All war is based on deception.

As water shapes its flow in accordance with the ground, so an army manages its victory in accordance with the situation of the enemy.

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

On the field of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough; hence the institution of gongs and drums... banners and flags. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point.