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.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.

Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy

The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

An army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness.

In the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.