In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

All war is deception.

A battle avoided cannot be lost.

Who can determine where one ends and the other begins?

Every battle is won before it is fought.

If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is death.

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