Humaneness and justice are the means by which to govern properly. When government is carried out properly, people feel close to the leadership and think little of dying for it.

If you wish to feign confusion in order to lure the enemy on, you must first have perfect discipline if you wish to display timidity in order to entrap the enemy, you must have extreme courage if you wish to parade your weakness in order to make the enemy over-confident, you must have exceeding strength.

Too much emotion is like none at all.

Roll rocks down a ten-thousand-foot mountain, and they cannot be stopped - this is because of the mountain, not the rocks. Get people to fight with the courage to win every time, and the strong and the weak unite - this is because of the momentum, not the individuals.

If I wish to wrest an advantage from the enemy, I must not fix my mind on that alone, but allow for the possibility of the enemy also doing some harm to me... If I wish to extricate myself from a dangerous position, I must consider not only the enemy's ability to injure me, but also my own ability to gain an advantage over the enemy.

In general, fire is used to throw enemies into confusion so that you can attack them.