Carefully study the well-being of your men, and do not overtax them. Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength. Keep your army continually on the move, and devise unfathomable plans.

Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more intimate than the secret agent; of all rewards none more liberal than those given to secret agents; of all matters none is more confidential than those relating to secret operations.

Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy!

Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him

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