Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.
Interpretation
The quote highlights that true strength comes from defense while success is found in offense.
Sun Tzu's quote emphasizes the duality of strategy in conflict and life. It suggests that an invincible position is achieved through strong defenses that protect against failure, whereas the potential for victory emerges through proactive and aggressive efforts. This illustrates the balance between caution and ambition in achieving one's goals.
In practice
During a team meeting discussing project strategies.
Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Great results, can be achieved with small forces.
To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.
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.
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.
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.
Probably nothing serious or worthwhile can be accomplished without one's willingness to be alone for sustained periods of time, which is not to say that one must live alone, obsessively.
Appearance is something absolute, but reality is not that way - everything is interdependent, not absolute. So that view is very helpful to maintain a peace of mind because the main destroyer of a peaceful mind is anger.
In mindfulness one is not only restful and happy, but alert and awake. Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.
Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don't complain.
I was taught you don't tell your secrets to strangers - certainly not secrets that expose error, weakness, failure. My generation, like its predecessors, was taught that since our achievements received little notice or credit from white America, we were not to discuss our faults, lapses, or uncertainties in public.
Then I thought, "No, I broke it myself. I broke it on purpose to pay myself back for being such a heel.
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