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The Art of War quotes
10 quotes from The Art of War by Sun Tzu / Sunzi (trans. Lionel Giles). Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #132 (public domain in the USA), the text this site’s reader shows. Each quote is copied exactly from that text and links to its passage in the reader; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against the reader’s text.
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
All warfare is based on deception.
Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all!
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: (1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
Sun Tzŭ said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.