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

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.

If your enemy is superior, evade him

Therefore, to estimate the enemy situation and to calculate distances and the degree of difficulty of the terrain so as to control victory are virtues of the superior general.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.

Invincibility depends on one's self; the enemy's vulnerability on him.

Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy