Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.

To capture the enemy's entire army is better than to destroy it; to take intact a regiment, a company, or a squad is better than to destroy them. For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the supreme of excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence.

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.

Appraise war in terms of the fundamental factors. The first of these factors is moral influence.

Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.

To ... not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.

When you shoot a bow and arrow, you aim at the clouds, not because you expect to hit them, but so that you may reach the distant target on the ground.