Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting.

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

A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge.