Quotes by Military Strategists - Page 2

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Sun Tzu
The art of war is the art of deception.
Sun Tzu
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.
Sun Tzu
When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is INSUBORDINATION.
Sun Tzu
If there is disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak. 
Sun Tzu
These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.
Sun Tzu
If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .
Sun Tzu
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun Tzu
There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combinationthey produce more hues than can ever been seen.There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations ofthem yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.
Sun Tzu
You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.
Sun Tzu
Whether in an advantageous position or a disadvantageous one, the opposite state should be always present to your mind.
Sun Tzu
We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country -- its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps.
Sun Tzu
Standing on the defensive indicates insufficient strength; attacking, a superabundance of strength.
Sun Tzu
If we wish to wrest an advantage from the enemy, we must not fix our minds on that alone, but allow for the possibility of the enemy also doing some harm to us, and let this enter as a factor into our calculations.
Sun Tzu
He wins his battles by making no mistakes.Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.
Sun Tzu
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
Sun Tzu
One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful, subduing the other's military without battle is the most skillful.
Sun Tzu
There are not more than five primary colors  (blue, yellow,  red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.
Sun Tzu
Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy.
Sun Tzu
If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.
Sun Tzu
Ground on which we can only be saved from destruction by fighting without delay, is desperate ground.
Sun Tzu
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu
When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is COLLAPSE.
Sun Tzu
One mark of a great soldier is that he fight on his own terms or fights not at all.
Sun Tzu
Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive.
Sun Tzu
If quick, I survive.If not quick, I am lost.This is "death.
Sun Tzu
It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.
Sun Tzu
5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.Excerpt From: Sunzi. “The Art of War.” iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.
Sun Tzu
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Sun Tzu
do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat
Sun Tzu
One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage.
Sun Tzu
Understand both yourself and your enemy, and you shall always emerge victorious
Sun Tzu
He who advances without seeking fame,Who retreats without escaping blame,He whose one aim is to protect his people and serve his lord,The man is a jewel of the Realm
Sun Tzu
If soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you, they will not prove submissive;and, unless submissive, then will be practically useless. If, when the soldiers have become attachedto you, punishments are not enforced, they will still be unless.
Sun Tzu
To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.
Sun Tzu
A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.
Sun Tzu
Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.
Sun Tzu
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
Sun Tzu
If your opponent is of choleric temper,  seek to irritate him.  Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
Sun Tzu
There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.
Sun Tzu
Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.
Sun Tzu
He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
Sun Tzu
The wise warrior avoids the battle.
Sun Tzu
The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.
Sun Tzu
When an invading force crosses a river in its onward march, do not advance to meet it in mid-stream.  It will be best to let half the army get across, and then deliver your attack.
Sun Tzu
The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
Sun Tzu
Bravery without forethought, causes a man to fight blindly and desperately like a mad bull.  Such an opponent, must not be encountered with brute force, but may be lured into an ambush and slain.
Sun Tzu
To begin by bluster, but afterwards to take fright at the enemy's numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.
Sun Tzu
if you fight with all your might,  there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your corner
Sun Tzu
O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible, and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.
Sun Tzu
If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.
Sun Tzu
When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteoousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders'.
Sun Tzu
The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.
Sun Tzu
Be where your enemy is not.
Sun Tzu