Bestow rewards without respect to customary practice; publish orders without respect to precedent. Thus you may employ the entire army as you would one man.

First learn to become invincible, then wait for your enemy's moment of vulnerability.

Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.

Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off in safety.

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

The natural formation of the country is the soldier's best ally

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