Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.
Interpretation
A leader's decisions should be guided by higher principles, not personal grudges or emotions.
This quote from Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of rationality and strategic thinking in leadership and warfare. It warns against allowing personal feelings of anger or resentment to motivate actions, such as deploying troops or engaging in conflict, suggesting that such impulses can lead to disastrous outcomes in both military and leadership contexts.
In practice
A military leader addressing their troops before a campaign.
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.
We haven't always been aware of it, but the 'locker-room bro talk' has long been going on not just in locker rooms but in some corporate conference rooms. Of course, not by all men. But by some - including some who hold positions of power. And that matters in holding women back.
When you try to be a role model, not everybody can relate to some of your highs - awards, championships. But everybody can relate to the lows. Everybody's gotten fired from a job or gotten cut. People learn more about you in those lows than they do in the highs.
One cannot govern with 'buts'.
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.
All the years I coached, we sent a card to every professor for each kid I had, and I was able to keep track on a daily basis who cut class or who was dropping a grade average. What I did was bring that kid in at 5:00 in the morning, and he would run the stairs from the bottom to the top until I told him to quit.
It is time that all Americans realized that the place of labor is side by side with the businessman and with the farmer, and not one-degree lower.
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