The Art of War

Famous quotes

• All warfare is based on deception.

  Chapter IIn context

  • Truth & Lies
  • War & Peace

• If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

  Chapter IIn context

  • Pride
  • War & Peace

• There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

  Chapter IIIn context

  • War & Peace

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

  Chapter IIIn context

  • Motivation & Goals
  • War & Peace

• If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

  Chapter IIIIn context

  • Enemies
  • Knowledge
  • War & Peace

• The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

  Chapter IVIn context

  • War & Peace

• To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

  Chapter IVIn context

  • Enemies
  • War & Peace

• What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

  Ch. IV (tr. Lionel Giles)In context

  • War & Peace

• 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.

  Chapter VIIn context

  • War & Peace

• Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

  Chapter VIIIn context

  • War & Peace

• When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

  Chapter VIIIn context

  • Enemies
  • War & Peace

• The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

  Chapter VIIIIn context

  • War & Peace

• Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.

  Chapter XIn context

  • Leadership

• Rapidity is the essence of war: take advantage of the enemy’s unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots.

  Chapter XIIn context

  • War & Peace

Contents