Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

If your enemy is superior, evade him

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.

Of all those in the army close to the commander, none is more intimate than the secret agent.

The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.

the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.