To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
百戦百勝、非善之善者也。不戦而屈人之兵、善之善者也。
Military Strategists
Sun Tzu
A 5th-century BCE Chinese military theorist whose treatise 'The Art of War' remains the most influential work on strategy ever written. His principles of deception, intelligence, and winning without fighting transcend warfare and have been adopted across business, diplomacy, and competitive strategy worldwide.
View this figure's profile
Sun Tzu's Other Quotes
In war, I have heard of clumsy swiftness, but never seen clever delay.
All warfare is based on deception.
In war there is no constant posture, as water has no constant form. He who can win by adapting to the enemy's changes may be called divine.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Related Quotes
The die is cast.
-- Julius Caesar
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.
-- Babe Ruth
Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.
-- Frederick II of Prussia
Audacity, audacity, always audacity!
-- Frederick II of Prussia
Victory belongs to the most persevering.
-- Napoleon
I may lose a battle, but I shall never lose a minute.
-- Napoleon