Correct your mistake as soon as you have found it.

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.

Of old the expert in battle would first make himself invincible and then wait for his enemy to expose his vulnerability.

Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.

Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.

To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and you know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you now Heaven and you know Earth, you may make your victory complete.