99+ Sun Tzu Quotes on Deception, Diplomacy and Strategy - Quotes.pub

Here you will find all the famous Sun Tzu quotes. There are more than 99+ quotes in our Sun Tzu quotes collection. We have collected all of them and made stunning Sun Tzu wallpapers & posters out of those quotes. You can use this wallpapers & posters on mobile, desktop, print and frame them or share them on the various social media platforms. You can download the quotes images in various different sizes for free. In the below list you can find quotes in various categories like Deception, Diplomacy and Strategy

Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men.

With regard to precipitous heights, if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there wait for him to come up.

Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.

To maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.

To perceive victory when it is known to all is not really skilful. Everyone calls victory in battle good, but it is not really good.

Fighting with a large army under your command is nowise different from fighting with a small one: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.

When orders are consistently trustworthy and observed, the relationship of a commander with his troops is satisfactory.

From a position of this sort, if the enemy is unprepared, you may sally forth and defeat him. But if the enemy is prepared for your coming, and you fail to defeat him, then, return being impossible, disaster will ensue.

Hence the experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss.

Carefully study the well-being of your men, and do not overtax them. Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength. Keep your army continually on the move, and devise unfathomable plans.

Who can determine where one ends and the other begins?

Those who do not know the plans of competitors cannot prepare alliances. Those who do not know the lay of the land cannot maneuver their forces. Those who do not use local guides cannot take advantage of the ground.

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

One who speaks deferentially but increases his preparations will advance. One who speaks belligerently and advances hastily will retreat.

The control of large numbers is possible, and like unto that of small numbers, if we subdivide them.

Peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot.

Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

If we know that the enemy is open to attack, but are unaware that our own men are not in a condition to attack, we have gone only halfway towards victory.

Of all those in the army close to the commander, none is more intimate than the secret agent.

According to my assessment, even if you have many more troops than others, how can that help you to victory?

War is a matter of vital importance to the state.

As water shapes its flow in accordance with the ground, so an army manages its victory in accordance with the situation of the enemy.

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.

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.

Thus the skilful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.

When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.

Bestow rewards without regard to rule, issue orders without regard to previous arrangements; and you will be able to handle a whole army as though you had to do with but a single man.

Now a soldier’s spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday it has begun to flag; and in the evening, his mind is only on returning to camp.

This does not mean that the enemy is to be allowed to escape. The object is to make him believe that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair. After that, you may crush him.

One who has few must prepare against the enemy; one who has many makes the enemy prepare against him.

Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.

Invincibility depends on one’s self; the enemy’s vulnerability on him.

When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or not he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.

When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food.

If a general shows confidence in his men but always insists on his orders being obeyed, the gain will be mutual.

Hence the saying: The enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources.

In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to engagement, surprising actions generally lead to victory.

Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve.

The sovereign must have full knowledge of the activities of the five sorts of agents. This knowledge must come from the double agents, and therefore it is mandatory that they be treated with the utmost liberality.

Know the enemy and know yourself.

Should the enemy forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

Should one ask: ‘how do I cope with a well-ordered enemy host about to attack me?’ I reply: seize something he cherishes and he will conform to your desires.

If their forces are substantial, prepare for them; if their forces are strong, avoid them.

When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporising ground.

It is imperative to contest all factions for complete victory, so the army is not garrisoned and the profit can be total. This is the law of strategic siege.

Those who would wage war, should first eliminate all domestic enemies before proceeding to attack the external foe.

Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy’s condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.

These are six ways of courting defeat, which must be carefully noted by the general who has attained a responsible post.

If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity.

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

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