When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.

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

Do not press an enemy at bay.

Know thy self, know thy enemy.

In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler's bidding.

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