Who does not know the evils of war cannot appreciate its benefits.
Sun TzuRead
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Preparation and strategy are key to achieving victory.
This quote by Sun Tzu highlights the importance of foresight and planning in achieving success. It suggests that true victors approach challenges with a clear strategy in place, ensuring they are prepared before engaging in any conflict, while those who fail often jump into battles without sufficient preparation, relying solely on luck or reaction to achieve victory.
Themes
VictoryStrategyPreparationWisdomWarfare
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage strategic planning.
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
The constant reprimands made me hyperconscious of my own performance, and so instead of getting rid of self, I had become embedded in the egoism I was supposed to transcend. Now I was beginning to understand that a silence that is not clamorous with vexation and worried self-regard can become part of the texture of your mind, can seep into you, moment by moment, and gradually change you.
Karen ArmstrongRead
probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.
John F. KennedyRead
When we harbor negative emotions toward others or toward ourselves, or when we intentionally create pain for others, we poison our own physical and spiritual systems. By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. It disables a person's emotional resources. The challenge...is to refine our capacity to love others as well as ourselves and to develop the power of forgiveness.
Caroline MyssRead
To try too hard to make people good is one way to make them worse. The only way to make them good is to be good, remembering well the beam and the mote.
George MacdonaldRead
Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made him rich.
Robert FrostRead
When we give up our images of self-importance and our ideas of what should be, we can help things become what they need to be.
Benjamin HoffRead