What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

Where the army is, prices are high; when prices rise the wealth of the people is exhausted.

When you know both yourself as well as your competition, you are never in danger. To know yourself and not others, gives you half a chance of winning. Knowing neither yourself or your competition puts you in a position to lose.

Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.

The dance of battle is always played to the same impatient rhythm. What begins in a surge of violent motion is always reduced to the perfectly still.

If I am able to determine the enemy's dispositions while at the same time I conceal my own, then I can concentrate and he must divide.

One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage.