Gain a deeper understanding of human nature and the art of successful decision–making through Sun Tzu quotes on tactics and discipline.
Sun Tzu was a legendary Chinese military strategist and philosopher. He is an author of “The Art of War,” one of the most influential books on strategy and warfare ever written. His teachings have inspired generations of leaders and warriors, and continue to be relevant and applicable in modern times.
Through his writing, Sun Tzu offers profound and timeless wisdom on your journey, whether personal or professional life. They will guide you on how to achieve success, victory, and prosperity in all aspects of life. That’s we gathered the most inspiring of Sun Tzu quotes.
From the battlefield to the boardroom, his teachings emphasize the importance of strategy, leadership, and the ability to navigate the complexities of human relationships. Let’s delve into the world of Sun Tzu quotes. And discover how they can help us navigate the challenges and opportunities of modern life.
Sun Tzu quotes on strategy
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Sun Tzu
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.
Sun Tzu
To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
Sun Tzu
All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are to lure him; feign disorder and strike him. When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong, avoid him. Anger his general and confuse him. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
Sun Tzu
When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.
Sun Tzu
When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seem humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.
Sun Tzu
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
Sun Tzu
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
Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
Sun Tzu
The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict unnecessary.
Sun Tzu
Famous Sun Tzu quotes
In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
Sun Tzu
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Sun Tzu
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun Tzu
It is more important to outhink your enemy, than to outfight him.
Sun Tzu
Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.
Sun Tzu
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Sun Tzu
The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.
Sun Tzu
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Sun Tzu
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Sun Tzu
The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes on adaptation
If you follow the enemy’s shifts and changes, you can always find a way to win.
Sun Tzu
The nature of war is constant change.
Sun Tzu
Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow…they have form but are formless. They are skilled in both planning and adapting and need not fear the result of a thousand battles: for they win in advance, defeating those that have already lost.
Sun Tzu
Those who are able to adapt and change in accord with the enemy and achieve victory are called divine.
Sun Tzu
The ability to adapt means having contingencies in place when momentum is not on your side. It also means doing the opposite of what seems advantageous in the moment.
Sun Tzu
Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow.
Sun Tzu
The military has no constant form, just as water has no constant shape – adapt as you face the enemy, without letting them know beforehand what you are going to do.
Sun Tzu
So a military force has no constant formation, water has no constant shape: the ability to gain victory by changing and adapting according to the opponent is called genius.
Sun Tzu
Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.
Sun Tzu
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.
Sun Tzu
Opportunities multiply as they are seized, but you need the first opportunity.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes on leadership
Let these ten Sun Tzu quotes inspire you to become a better leader, strategist, and human being.
The skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting.
Sun Tzu
The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.
Sun Tzu
The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.
Sun Tzu
Invincibility is in oneself, and vulnerability is in the opponent. Invincibility is a matter of defense, vulnerability is a matter of attack. Therefore skillful warriors are able to be invincible, but they cannot cause opponents to be vulnerable. That is why it is said that victory is discerned and not manufactured.
Sun Tzu
A leader leads by example not by force.
Sun Tzu
Weak leadership can wreck the soundest strategy; forceful execution of even a poor plan can often bring victory.
Sun Tzu
Winning isn’t enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.
Sun Tzu
He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
Sun Tzu
When the leader is morally weak and his discipline not strict, when his instructions and guidance are not enlightened, when there are no consistent rules, neighboring rulers will take advantage of this.
Sun Tzu
The leader of armies is the arbiter of the people’s fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes about enemy
Attack the enemy’s strategy.
Sun Tzu
Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.
Sun Tzu
If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is tempermental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Sun Tzu
If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
Sun Tzu
To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.
Sun Tzu
Do not engage an enemy more powerful than you. And if it is unavoidable and you do have to engage, then make sure you engage it on your terms, not on your enemy’s terms.
Sun Tzu
All wars are won or lost before they are ever fought.
Sun Tzu
One need not destroy one’s enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage.
Sun Tzu
Convince your enemy that he will gain very little by attacking you; this will diminish his enthusiasm.
Sun Tzu
He who knows his enemy and himself well will not be defeated easily.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes on victory
If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.
Sun Tzu
Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack.
Sun Tzu
In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to engagement, surprising actions generally lead to victory.
Sun Tzu
When I have won a victory I do not repeat my tactics but respond to circumstances in an infinite variety of ways.
Sun Tzu
The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.
Sun Tzu
To perceive victory when it is known to all is not really skilful… It does not take much strength to lift a hair, it does not take sharp eyes to see the sun and moon, it does not take sharp ears to hear the thunderclap.
Sun Tzu
Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.
Sun Tzu
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Sun Tzu
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.
Sun Tzu
To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes on invasion
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Sun Tzu
So the principles of warfare are: Do not depend on the enemy not coming, but depend on our readiness against him. Do not depend on the enemy not attacking, but depend on our position that cannot be attacked.
Sun Tzu
What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.
Sun Tzu
Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.
Sun Tzu
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.
Sun Tzu
Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.
Sun Tzu
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
In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
Sun Tzu
In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack: the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.
Sun Tzu
One defends when his strength is inadequate, he attacks when it is abundant.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu quotes on self discovery
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu
When you know both yourself as well as your competition, you are never in danger. To know yourself and not others, gives you half a chance of winning. Knowing neither yourself or your competition puts you in a position to lose.
Sun Tzu
Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.
Sun Tzu
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.
Sun Tzu
Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.
Sun Tzu
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
Sun Tzu
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.
Sun Tzu
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
Sun Tzu
Know the enemy and know yourself.
Sun Tzu
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
Inspirational Sun Tzu quotes
Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.
Sun Tzu
If you are strong, appear weak. But if you are weak, appear strong.
Sun Tzu
In all history, there is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. Only one who knows the disastrous effects of a long war can realize the supreme importance of rapidity in bringing it to a close.
Sun Tzu
If a battle can not be won do not fight it.
Sun Tzu
All warfare is based on deception.
Sun Tzu
Great results, can be achieved with small forces.
Sun Tzu
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
Sun Tzu
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment – that which they cannot anticipate.
Sun Tzu
The true objective of war is peace.
Sun Tzu
So the important thing in a military operation is victory, not persistence.
Sun Tzu
Motivational Sun Tzu quotes
Don’t flail against the world, use it. Flexibility is the operative principle in the art of war.
Sun Tzu
To not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.
Sun Tzu
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.
Sun Tzu
Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.
Sun Tzu
The difficult things in this world must be done while they are easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they achieve greatness.
Sun Tzu
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
Sun Tzu
Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength.
Sun Tzu
Swift as the wind. Quiet as the forest. Conquer like the fire. Steady as the mountain.
Sun Tzu
Correct your mistake as soon as you have found it.
Sun Tzu
Final thoughts
As we learn together, Sun Tzu quotes offer a roadmap to success in all areas of life. From the battlefield to the boardroom, Sun Tzu’s insights continue to inspire and guide leaders and thinkers around the world.
By incorporating his wisdom into your daily life, you can cultivate how to work smart to achieve live life to the fullest and living more meaningful life. So, take these words of wisdom to heart. Let these Sun Tzu quotes guide you on your own journey to success, victory, and prosperity.
Did you enjoy these insightful and thought–provoking Sun Tzu quotes? Hope they have offered you some valuable insights and inspiration for your own life and pursuits. Feel free to share these quotes with others.
At the end, Sun Tzu’s enduring legacy is a testament to the power of wisdom, perseverance, and a deep understanding of the human experience. So let Sun Tzu’s life and teachings encourage you to strive for excellence, to lead with vision and courage.
Remember, life is a journey. And the journey to success and victory begins with a single step. With Sun Tzu’s guidance, you can take that step with confidence and purpose.