Quote
By Sun Tzu
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
- Source
- The Art of War (Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles), 1910 · Chapter III (Attack by Stratagem), paragraph 2
- Read at
- Lionel Giles translation (Project Gutenberg text, eBook #132)
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About this quote
From The Art of War, Chapter III (Attack by Stratagem),, paragraph 2, in Lionel Giles's English translation (1910). Sun Tzu (Sunzi) wrote in Chinese, so the English words are Giles's. The author and date are uncertain; tradition places him around the 5th century BCE. Other translators render this line differently.