Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
The natural formation of the country is the soldier's best ally
Interpretation
What this quote means
The landscape of a region can provide strategic advantages to soldiers in battle.
Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of the natural geography of a land in warfare, suggesting that soldiers can gain great advantages by utilizing the terrain to their advantage. In essence, understanding and leveraging the environment can turn the tide of battle in favor of those who are aware of its nuances and complexities.
Themes
StrategyTerrainWarfareAdvantageGeography
In practice
Example use cases
During a military strategy seminar, when discussing the importance of battlefield advantages.
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
In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation. It isn't happening now, but I will tell you, there has never been an American army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.
Seymour HershRead
The object of defense is preservation; and since it is easier to hold ground than to take it, defense is easier than attack. But defense has a passive purpose: preservation; and attack a positive one: conquest.... If defense is the stronger form of war, yet has a negative object, it follows that it should be used only so long as weakness compels, and be abandoned as soon as we are strong enough to pursue a positive object.
Carl Von ClausewitzRead
Women are so much a part of war, even if they tend to see another side of it. To say they don't understand war is ridiculous.
Margaret MacmillanRead
War loses a great deal of its romance after a soldier has seen his first battle.
John S. MosbyRead
War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.
Albert PikeRead
I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.
Abba EbanRead