It is more important to outhink your enemy, than to outfight him

In warfare, there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent will succeed and win.

If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding.

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.