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Art Of War Quotes

Browse 422 quotes about Art Of War.

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Art Of War Quotes

“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

KnowsMayArtWarSpiritFightingWinningForceWaitingEnemyKnow HowFiveMilitaryVictoryEssentialsCapacityArmyPreparedHandleSuperiorsInferiorsSovereignArt Of WarAnimatedStrategistUnpreparedWar StrategyStratagem
Book:The Art Of War - The Oldest Military Treatise in the World
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“These are the six ways of courting defeat - neglect to estimate the enemy's strength; want of authority; defective training; unjustifiable anger; nonobservance of discipline; failure to use picked men.”

MenWayWantArtWarUseEnemyDisciplineAuthoritySixTrainingDefeatNeglectArt Of WarDefective
Book:Art of War, Plain English Edition: One of the Greatest Strategy Books in the History of the World, Now in an Easy to Read Version
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“Whoever is the first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy will be fresh for the fight... Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy... By holding out advantages to him, he can cause the enemy to approach of his own accord; or by inflicting damage, he can make it impossible for the enemy to draw near.”

FirstsArtWarFightingCausesEnemyImpossibleFieldsApproachDrawsAdvantageCleverDamageArt Of WarAccord
Book:Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text
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“When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce. If the enemy's troops march up angrily and remain facing ours for a long time without either joining battle or removing demands, the situation is one that requires great vigilance and circumspection. To begin by bluster, but afterward to take fright at the enemy's numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.”

IfsLongArtWarShowsWishNumbersSituationEnemyBattleDemandLong TimeMouthsSupremeMarchComplimentTroopsArt Of WarJoiningFrightVigilanceMy WishTruceCircumspectionBluster
Author:Sun Tzu
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“By altering his arrangements and changing his plans, the skillful general keeps the enemy without definite knowledge. By shifting his camp and taking circuitous routes, he prevents the enemy from anticipating his purpose. At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him.”

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Book:The Art of War
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“A prince... must learn from the fox and the lion... One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who act simply as lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist.”

ArtMadeWarReasonOrderStupidPromiseHonourLionsRulersTrapsFoxesArt Of WarDisadvantagesPrudent
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“There is nothing more difficult than tactical maneuvering. The difficult consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of deviation.”

WayLongArtWarShowsDifficultGoalEnemyGainsDirectStartingMisfortunesRoutesArt Of WarArtificeTacticalDeviationDeviousEnticing
Book:Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text
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“It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline.”

MayArtWarStatesOrderCoursesSubjectsPerfectionAffairConfusionAllowingDeclineArt Of WarMundaneProvincesVicissitudes
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“No proceeding is better than that which you have concealed from the enemy until the time you have executed it. To know how to recognize an opportunity in war, and take it, benefits you more than anything else. Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many. Discipline in war counts more than fury.”

KnowsMenArtWarOpportunityEnemyKnow HowIndustryDisciplineBenefitsTrainingBraveArt Of WarFuryConcealedProceeding
Book:The Complete Art of War
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“In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good. The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune.”

ArtWarStatesReasonOrderEvilVirtueProduceReturnSpringGloryFortuneRuinsDisorderDeclineArt Of WarGood FortuneReposeValor
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“If you only notice human proceedings, you may observe that all who attain great power and riches, make use of either force or fraud; and what they have acquired either by deceit or violence, in order to conceal the disgraceful methods of attainment, they endeavor to sanctify with the false title of honest gains.”

IfsHumansMayArtWarUseOrderForceViolenceHonestGainsMethodRichesTitlesDeceitEndeavorFraudArt Of WarAttainmentGreat PowerProceedingDisgracefulSanctify
Book:History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy
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“Those who either from imprudence or want of sagacity avoid doing so, are always overwhelmed with servitude and poverty; for faithful servants are always servants, and honest men are always poor; nor do any ever escape from servitude but the bold and faithless, or from poverty, but the rapacious and fraudulent.”

MenWantArtWarPoorPovertyHonestFaithfulServantOverwhelmedArt Of WarHonest ManServitudeFaithlessSagacityFaithful Servants
Book:History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy
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“God and nature have thrown all human fortunes into the midst of mankind; and they are thus attainable rather by rapine than by industry, by wicked actions rather than by good. Hence it is that men feed upon each other, and those who cannot defend themselves must be worried.”

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Book:History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy
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“I am firmly convinced, therefore, that to set up a republic which is to last a long time, the way to set about it is to constitute it as Sparta and Venice were constituted; to place it in a strong position, and so to fortify it that no one will dream of taking it by a sudden assault; and, on the other hand, not to make it so large as to appear formidable to its neighbors. It should in this way be able to enjoy its form of government for a long time. For war is made on a commonwealth for two reasons: to subjugate it, and for fear of being subjugated by it.”

WayShouldLongArtMadeTwoWarReasonDreamHandsGovernmentAbleLastsFormStrongEnjoyPositionLong TimeConvincedNeighborRepublicAssaultArt Of WarVeniceForms Of GovernmentFormidableCommonwealthSparta
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“The people resemble a wild beast, which, naturally fierce and accustomed to live in the woods, has been brought up, as it were, in a prison and in servitude, and having by accident got its liberty, not being accustomed to search for its food, and not knowing where to conceal itself, easily becomes the prey of the first who seeks to incarcerate it again.”

PeopleFirstsHas BeensArtWarLibertyKnowingPrisonWoodsAccidentsBeastFierceNot KnowingAccustomedPreyArt Of WarServitudeWild Beasts
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.”

MenLittlesArtWarReasonAbleDesireResultsGreaterLosingFortuneSatisfactionPossessionAriseRuinsArt Of WarDiscontentAcquisitionProvincesEnmityElevation
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves.”

KnowsMenGivingShouldMayArtWarEndsMatterWholeBreakBearsDespairGiving UpCrossesNo Matter WhatFortuneWitnessNever Giving UpArt Of WarThere Is HopeWarpUnexploredLong Road
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage. Therefore, they made war with Philip and Antiochus in Greece, in order not to have to fight them in Italy... They never went by that saying which you constantly hear from the wiseacres of our day, that time heals all things. They trusted rather their own character and prudence- knowing perfectly well that time contains the seeds of all things, good as well as bad.”

WellsArtMadeWarCharacterOrderFightingKnowingTroubleAdvantageAll ThingsSeedsHealSpotsOver ItGoing AwayTrustedPrudenceGreeceArt Of WarPhilipTime HealsGoing To WarTime Heals All
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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