Sun Tzu

"Discipline is the soul of an army."

"Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural state flows downward, but man, if he is to be successful, must learn to adapt his thinking as water adapts its form."

"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."

"Those skilled in combat do not become angered."

"Fighting with knowledge of both self and enemy is not dangerous. What is dangerous is fighting with knowledge of neither."

"The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general is cautious."

"It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest thing is to know that friend at all."

"When you surround an enemy, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard."

"The wise warrior avoids the battle."

"Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; push a desperate foe too hard, and he will turn and bite the hand that feeds him."

"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest excellence. To subdue your enemy without even fighting is the highest excellence."

"The quality of decisions is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim."

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

"Treat your soldiers as your own beloved sons, and they will follow you into the deepest valley."

"He who occupies the field of battle first and awaits his enemy is fresh; he who comes later to the scene exhausts himself in the fight."

"A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return."

"If your enemy is secure at all points, be content to escape."

"Ponder and deliberate before you make a move."

"The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach."

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and an army of a hundred thousand becomes as though it were only one man."

"The art of warfare is governed by five constant factors. One must make them his constant study."

"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The more calculating the general, the more he contributes to these, his organization and his methods."

"To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy."

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people just as little."

"Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots."

"Even the finest sword plunges into darkness."

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

"There are three ways to great power: wealth which is transient, force which is brutal, and knowledge which is eternal."

"The supreme art of living is to understand your time and your place."