He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
— Sun Tzu
Belligerent War Strategy quotations
The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war
Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.
Know the enemy and know yourself.
When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.
Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.
He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
In strategy your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal.
Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.
Strategy is the art of making use of time and space.
I am less concerned about the later than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.
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.
The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.
No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen;
no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
The good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.
In war the chief incalculable is the human will, which manifests itself in resistance, which in turn lies in the province of tactics. Strategy has not to overcome resistance, except from nature. Its purpose is to diminish the possibility of resistance, and it seeks to fulfil this purpose by exploiting the elements of movement and surprise.
Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.
Cutting down the enemy is the way of strategy, and there is no need for many refinements of it.
And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.
Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him
Power tends to corrupt. But the power in Washington resides in Congress, if it wants to use it. It can do anything-it can stop the Vietnam War. It can make its will felt, if it can ever get its act together to do anything.
Here's my strategy on the Cold War: we win, they lose.
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of Strategy.
The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.
The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.
What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.
He who wishes to fight must first count the cost
Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.
The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands
Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.