"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

• According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans.
• All warfare is based on deception.
• The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
• If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the state will not be equal to the strain.
• There is no instance of a country having been benefited from prolonged warfare.
• Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.
• Captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.
• Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
• The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans. The next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces. The next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field. The worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
• The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.
• It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
• There are five essentials for victory:
• He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
• He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
• He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all ranks.
• He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
• He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
• If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
• The control of a large force is the same in principle as the control of a few men. It is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.
• The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known.
• An army without its baggage train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.
• A soldier's' spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday it has begun to flag and in the evening his mind is bent only on returning to camp.
• When you surround an army leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
• The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.
• Pass quickly over mountains and keep in the neighborhood of valleys.
• In battle and maneuvering all armies should prefer high ground to low and sunny places to dark. If you are careful of your men, and camp on hard ground, the army will be free from diseases.
• Soldiers must be treated with humanity, but kept under control by iron discipline.
• Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.