You cannot know if you will be successful or not. You can only prepare for battle and it must be done with all of your heart and with all of your consciousness. In that manner, you will have an edge.

It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled.

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

Know the enemy and know yourself.

They [spies] cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.

Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.

The supreme excellence is not to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles. The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies of your enemies without having to fight them.