When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce. If the enemy's troops march up angrily and remain facing ours for a long time without either joining battle or removing demands, the situation is one that requires great vigilance and circumspection. To begin by bluster, but afterward to take fright at the enemy's numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.

It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled.

When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporising ground.

Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.

Quickness is the essence of the war.

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.

Fierce language and pretentious advances are signs that the enemy is about to retreat.