Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
Sweat more during peace: bleed less during war
Interpretation
Preparation and hard work lead to better outcomes in times of difficulty.
This quote by Sun Tzu emphasizes the importance of diligent preparation during peaceful times to minimize losses or hardships during challenging periods, like war. It suggests that proactive efforts and training can result in more favorable circumstances when facing adversity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about teamwork and resilience.
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.
I remember when people used to think I was smart. I remember when people used to think my brain was useful. Damaged by water, sure. And ready to seizure at any moment. But still useful, and maybe even a little bit beautiful and sacred and magical.
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.
Fill what is empty, empty what is full, and scratch where it itches.
Force a hand, the voice warned, and it will fight you. But convince a mind to think as you want it to think, and you have an ally.
If I found a healing tree in my backyard, and it grew some sort of fruit that was a healing balm for people to repair what was damaged, I'm not going to just harvest all of those fruits and say, 'You cant have this.' If I have a cure for people, I'm going to share it.
To tell you the truth, the older I get, the less I know. I keep meeting people, both older and younger, who seem to have accrued so much more knowledge or expertise or certainty about who they are and the jobs they do. I just marvel at it.
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