Thus the skilful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.

To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

He who is not sage and wise, humane and just, cannot use secret agent.s. And he who is not delicate and subtle cannot get the truth out of them.

Therefore I say: know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

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