Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.

Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.

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

Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

It is ten thousand times cheaper to pay the best spies lavishly than even a tiny army poorly.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.

When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or not he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.