There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

Now an army is exposed to six several calamities, not arising from natural causes, 1 but from faults for which the general is responsible. These are: (1) Flight; (2) insubordination; (3) collapse; (4) ruin; (5) disorganisation; (6) rout.

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

Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy... use the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.

If I wish to engage, then the enemy, for all his high ramparts and deep moat, cannot avoid engagement; I attack that which he is obliged to rescue.

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.

By altering his arrangements and changing his plans, the skillful general keeps the enemy without definite knowledge. By shifting his camp and taking circuitous routes, he prevents the enemy from anticipating his purpose. At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him.