Quote
By Sun Tzu
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.
- Source
- The Art of War (Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles), 1910 · Chapter III (Attack by Stratagem), paragraph 18
- 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 18, 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. In Giles's text the passage begins "Hence the saying:", so the book is passing on an older saying here. Both sentences are given so the second half of the saying is not lost.