He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Should the enemy forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

Until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared

Other conditions being equal, if one force is hurled against another ten times its size, the result will be the flight of the former.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

What is of the greatest importance in war is extraordinary speed: One cannot afford to neglect opportunity.