“When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteoousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders.”

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.

Those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.

Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.

Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.

Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.

One mark of a great soldier is that he fight on his own terms or fights not at all.

Wheels of justice gind slow but grind fine.

There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.

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.

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

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

Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.

There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

Confidence breeds confidence and negativity breeds negativity.

Congratulations! Today is your day!

Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.

Suppose you are wrong? How would you know? How would you test for that possibility?

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

Perhaps I failed, but I did my best, These masters of mine may do the rest.

I knew where I wanted to go, what kind of player I wanted to become and I focused on getting there.