It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.

Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow.

The King is only fond of words, and cannot translate them into deeds.

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

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

To plan secretly, to move surreptitiously, to foil the enemy's intentions and balk his schemes, so that at last the day may be won without shedding a drop of blood.