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Winning isn't enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.

Sun Tzu

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Sun Tzu
Military Personnel
Philosopher
Strategist
Writer
Kingdom of Qi
Sun Wu
Sun Zi
Changqing
Leadership
Taking
Enemy
Acme
Sports
Skill
Winning
Defeat
Enough
Field
Skills
Fields

More quotes by Sun Tzu

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It is through the dispositions of an army that its condition may be discovered. Conceal your dispositions, and your condition will remain secret, which leads to victory, show your dispositions, and your condition will become patent, which leads to defeat.
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Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuvering for advantageous positions.
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Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.
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When your opponent gives you an opening, be swift as a hare.
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One who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage will not attain it.
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When you shoot a bow and arrow, you aim at the clouds, not because you expect to hit them, but so that you may reach the distant target on the ground.
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In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
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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.
Sun Tzu
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Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting he captures their cities without laying siege to them he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.
Sun Tzu
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It is according to the shapes that I lay the plans for victory, but the multitude does not comprehend this. Although everyone can see the outward aspects, none understands the way in which I have created victory.
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Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
Sun Tzu
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If I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot discern it nor the wise make plans against it.
Sun Tzu
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Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and you know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt if you now Heaven and you know Earth, you may make your victory complete.
Sun Tzu
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In a position of this sort, even though the enemy should offer us an attractive bait, it will be advisable not to stir forth, but rather to retreat, thus enticing the enemy in his turn then, when part of his army has come out, we may deliver our attack with advantage.
Sun Tzu
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It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.
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If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is death.
Sun Tzu
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Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow decision, to the releasing of a trigger.
Sun Tzu
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Every battle is won before it is fought.
Sun Tzu
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Management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization.
Sun Tzu
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A leader leads by example not by force.
Sun Tzu