The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

Now a soldier's spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday it has begun to flag; and in the evening, his mind is only on returning to camp.

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.

Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

Too frequent rewards indicate that the general is at the end of his resources; too frequent punishments that he is in acute distress.

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.

There is nothing more difficult than tactical maneuvering. The difficult consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of deviation.