To persuade your enemy to (retreat) before the fight is to defeat them even before the battle begins. An enemy made ally is no longer an enemy.

Bestow rewards without regard to rule, issue orders without regard to previous arrangements; and you will be able to handle a whole army as though you had to do with but a single man.

One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage.

Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

As water shapes its flow in accordance with the ground, so an army manages its victory in accordance with the situation of the enemy.

There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.