Sun Tzu Quotes About Strategy
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When your weapons are dulled and ardour damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counsellors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future. Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.
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If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle
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Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
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Do not press an enemy at bay. Prince Fu Ch'ai said: "Wild beasts, when at bay, fight desperately. How much more is this true of men! If they know there is no alternative, they will fight to the death.
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In executing an Artful Strategy: When ten times greater, surround them; When five times greater, attack them; When two times greater, scatter them. If the opponent is ready to challenge: When fewer in number, be ready to evade them; When unequal to the match, be ready to avoid them. Even when the smaller opponents have a strong position, the larger opponent will capture them.
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The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.
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If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
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Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy
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The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict unnecessary.
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Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
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The height of strategy, is to attack your opponent's strategy.
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Attack the enemy's strategy.
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Thus those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle .... They conquer by strategy.
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All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are to lure him; feign disorder and strike him. When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong, avoid him. Anger his general and confuse him. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
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What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.
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Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy; forceful execution of even a poor plan can often bring victory.
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Know the enemy and know yourself.
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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.
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Defeat the enemies strategy.
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All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
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To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.
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