The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.

Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.

If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attached to you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be unless.

Winning isn't enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.

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

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.

Ground which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy is called entangling.