Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger.

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

If your enemy is superior, evade him

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.