To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.

Keep their friends close and their enemies closer.

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: recklessness, which leads to destruction; cowardice, which leads to capture; a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; a delicacy of honour, which is sensitive to shame; over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

Like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this.

Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger.