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If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders are clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.

Sun Tzu

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Sun Tzu
Military Personnel
Philosopher
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Kingdom of Qi
Sun Wu
Sun Zi
Changqing
Words
Soldier
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Faults
Distinct
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More quotes by Sun Tzu

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Do not press an enemy at bay. Prince Fu Ch'ai said: Wild beasts, when at bay, fight desperately. How much more is this true of men! If they know there is no alternative, they will fight to the death.
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Thus, though I have heard of successful military operations that were clumsy but swift, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
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If you follow the enemy's shifts and changes, you can always find a way to win.
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Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.
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Set the troops to their tasks without imparting your designs.
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Winning isn't enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.
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Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.
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Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.
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Attack is the secret of defense defense is the planning of an attack.
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Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.
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Who can determine where one ends and the other begins?
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O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.
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To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
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The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.
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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.
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Bestow rewards without regard to rule, issue orders without regard to previous arrangements and you will be able to handle a whole army as though you had to do with but a single man.
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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.
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Thus the skilful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.
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Those skilled in attack move as from above the nine-fold heavens. Thus they are capable both of protecting themselves and of gaining complete victory.
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If you are strong, appear weak. But if you are weak, appear strong.
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