"The only way to win is to make the enemy think you are not there."

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

"The art of war is to be like water. For water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."

"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 …"

"One may know how to conquer without being able to do it."