The art of giving orders is not to try to rectify the minor blunders and not be swayed by petty doubts.

In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.

What is of the greatest importance in war is extraordinary speed: One cannot afford to neglect opportunity.

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

In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack.. the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.

Apparent confusion is a product of good order; apparent cowardice, of courage; apparent weakness, of strength.

Thus, though I have heard of successful military operations that were clumsy but swift, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.