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

Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.

Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.

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

An army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness.

If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed.