Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
First learn to become invincible, then wait for your enemy's moment of vulnerability.
Interpretation
What this quote means
One must first build strength and resilience before seizing opportunities against adversaries.
This quote from Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of preparation and self-improvement as foundational steps before engaging in conflict. It suggests that having a solid defense and strategy will position you to effectively identify and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses when they arise.
Themes
StrategyStrengthVulnerabilityEnemyResilience
In practice
Example use cases
During a leadership workshop to discuss strategic planning and competitive advantage.
More from Sun Tzu
All quotes βGreat results, can be achieved with small forces.
Sun TzuRead
To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.
Sun TzuRead
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 TzuRead
You can ensure the success of your attacks if you only attack places that are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked. Therefore, that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
Sun TzuRead
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 TzuRead
Similar quotes
Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
Harriet Beecher StoweRead
The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.
George Bernard ShawRead
Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
A Christian's freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care.
John StottRead
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
Brennan ManningRead
What makes a genius? The ability to see. To see what? The butterfly in a caterpillar, the eagle in an egg, the saint in a selfish person, life in death, unity in separation, God in the human and human in God and suffering as the form in which the incomprehensibility of God himself appears.
Brennan ManningRead