Top 350 Sun Tzu Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “The value of time, that is of being a little ahead of your opponent, often provides greater advantage than superior numbers or greater resources.”

— Sun Tzu

202. “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

203. “Apparent confusion is a product of good order; apparent cowardice, of courage; apparent weakness, of strength.”

— Sun Tzu

204. “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”

— Sun Tzu

205. “Attack where he is unprepared; sally forth when he does not expect you.”

— Sun Tzu

206. “Victory is the main object in war.”

— Sun Tzu

207. “O divine art of subtlety and secrecy!”

— Sun Tzu

208. “Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and and maintain their laws and institutions. By these means they make their governments invincible.”

— Sun Tzu

209. “Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.”

— Sun Tzu

210. “When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak, the result is collapse.”

— Sun Tzu

211. “He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

— Sun Tzu

212. “The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands.”

— Sun Tzu

213. “If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler’s bidding.”

— Sun Tzu

214. “When campaigning, be swift as the wind; in leisurely march, majestic as the forest; in raiding and plundering, like fire; in standing, firm as the mountains. As unfathomable as the clouds, move like a thunderbolt.”

— Sun Tzu

215. “If quick, I survive. If not quick, I am lost. This is death.”

— Sun Tzu

216. “There is an intelligent way to eat a live frog – I just don’t know what it is.”

— Sun Tzu

217. “If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale depressed.”

— Sun Tzu

218. “In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.”

— Sun Tzu

219. “In war, practice dissimulation and you will succeed.”

— Sun Tzu

220. “When the enemy is at ease, be able to weary him; when well fed, to starve him; when at rest, to make him move. Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.”

— Sun Tzu

221. “Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army’s ability to move.”

— Sun Tzu

222. “The business of a general is to kick away the ladder behind soldiers when they have climbed up a height.”

— Sun Tzu

223. “Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.”

— Sun Tzu

224. “When he utilizes combined energy, his fighting men become as it were like unto rolling logs or stones. For it is the nature of a log or stone to remain motionless on level ground, and to move when on a slope; if four-cornered, to come to a standstill, but if round-shaped to go rolling down.”

— Sun Tzu

225. “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

— Sun Tzu

226. “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

227. “Weigh the situation, then move.”

— Sun Tzu

228. “Winning Strategists are certain of triumph before seeking a challenge. Losing Strategists are certain to challenge before seeking a triumph.”

— Sun Tzu

229. “Defeat the enemies strategy.”

— Sun Tzu

230. “To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.”

— Sun Tzu

231. “And therefore only the enlightened sovereign and the worthy general who are able to use the most intelligent people as agents are certain to achieve great things.”

— Sun Tzu

232. “Without local guides, your enemy employs the land as a weapon against you.”

— Sun Tzu

233. “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.”

— Sun Tzu

234. “Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger.”

— Sun Tzu

235. “Rewards for good service should not be deferred a single day.”

— Sun Tzu

236. “He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.”

— Sun Tzu

237. “Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this.”

— Sun Tzu

238. “The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.”

— Sun Tzu

239. “Agitate him and ascertain the pattern of his movement.”

— Sun Tzu

240. “Of all those in the army close to the commander none is more intimate than the secret agent; of all rewards none more liberal than those given to secret agents; of all matters none is more confidential than those relating to secret operations.”

— Sun Tzu

241. “Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuver. What is difficult about maneuver is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage.”

— Sun Tzu

242. “Act after having made assessments. The one who first knows the measure of far and near wins – this is the rule of armed struggle.”

— Sun Tzu

243. “In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.”

— Sun Tzu

244. “Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy’s purpose.”

— Sun Tzu

245. “To conquer the enemy without resorting to war is the most desirable. The highest form of generalship is to conquer the enemy by strategy.”

— Sun Tzu

246. “Unhappy is the fate of one who tries to win his battles and succeed in his attacks without cultivating the spirit of enterprise, for the result is waste of time and general stagnation.”

— Sun Tzu

247. “The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points; and his forces being thus distributed in many directions, the numbers we shall have to face at any given point will be proportionately few.”

— Sun Tzu

248. “Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.”

— Sun Tzu

249. “A wise general makes a point of foraging of the enemy.”

— Sun Tzu

250. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. 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