The Misquote Test
Two famous lines to start. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And, every battle is won before it is ever fought. Both get credited to Sun Tzu. I searched the whole of Lionel Giles’ translation of The Art of War for each. Neither sentence is in it.
The first has no match at all. The word friends appears exactly once, in a story about a farewell at a river. The word closer appears twice, both times inside notes, and never next to the word enemies. The second has a real cousin in chapter one, and that cousin is my number one pick.
So here is the plan. I ranked fifteen real lines by one question: how usable are they outside a war? Then I flag the popular quotes that are paraphrased or not in the text. The ranking is my opinion. The quotes and chapter numbers are checked against the book.
I did not trust memory for any of this. I read the Giles text from the dedication to the last note, about fifty four thousand words, and then searched it for every phrase. So when I say a line is missing, I mean I looked for it in all of it.
How I Ranked
The translation is Lionel Giles, whose edition dates from nineteen ten, and the text I used is Project Gutenberg ebook one thirty two. Giles adds notes quoting old Chinese commentators, so I only count a line when it is in Sun Tzu’s own sentences, not in a note. That rule drops one popular line. Who wishes to fight must first count the cost is in the book, but it is a note by the commentator Ts’ao Kung, not a sentence of Sun Tzu.
The book has thirteen chapters, and each one opens with the words Sun Tzu said. Laying Plans. Waging War. Attack by Stratagem. Tactical Dispositions. Energy. Weak Points and Strong. Maneuvering. Variation in Tactics. The Army on the March. Terrain. The Nine Situations. The Attack by Fire. And The Use of Spies.
My test is simple. Could you use this line in a job, a negotiation or a family argument? Lines that travel well rise. Lines that need an army fall. One more caution from Giles himself. His introduction says any account of Sun Tzu’s life rests almost wholly on conjecture, so I treat these as the book’s lines, not a biography.
Fifteen To Twelve
Number fifteen, chapter one. All warfare is based on deception. It is the most quoted line in the book, and the least useful outside a war. As a rule for ordinary life it is a poor one, so it sits last. Deceiving the other side made sense when the other side was an army. It makes much less sense at a desk.
Number fourteen, chapter seven. Make your plans dark and impenetrable as night, then fall like a thunderbolt. A great sentence. It earns a place only if you really are launching a surprise, and few of us launch many. The second half, fall like a thunderbolt, is the part that is hard to copy, because it means committing everything at once.
Number thirteen, chapter eleven. Rapidity is the essence of war. Speed does help when it buys surprise or saves money, and chapter two backs that up with the cost of keeping an army in the field. It fails when speed means skipping the thinking, which is why it ranks so low.
Number twelve, chapter ten. The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace is, in Giles’ words, the jewel of the kingdom. Decisions made without ego are rare and valuable. But the line gives you no method.
Eleven To Eight
Number eleven, chapter four. The clever fighter’s victories bring neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage. The point is that the best wins prevent the fight, so nobody sees them. Anyone who does prevention work knows the feeling. True, but you cannot act on it.
Number ten, chapter six. Avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak. For a small business choosing where to compete, that is sound. I mark it down because in a team or a family, striking at the weak spot is not how you want to treat people.
Number nine, chapter two. Cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays. Giles adds a note here that is worth knowing. He says Sun Tzu does not claim rushing beats a clever slow plan. He says only that delay is foolish, because it drains the state. Good advice for any project that drags.
Number eight, chapter three. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. Use it to settle a dispute before it becomes a fight. It is strong, but it tells you what to aim for, not how to get there.
Seven To Four
Number seven, chapter six. Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory. The playbook that won last quarter may not win this one. It is a good check for any team on a hot streak. The same sentence continues that methods should be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances. The same move against a different opponent is a different move.
Number six, chapter seven. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. And, do not press a desperate foe too hard. In a note, the commentator Tu Mu adds that after that, you may crush him, so this is tactics, not kindness. In an argument, though, leaving someone a way to back down still works.
Number five, chapter eight. Rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him. That is backups, insurance and safety checks in one sentence. Sun Tzu’s point is that hoping the problem stays away is not a plan. I would rank it higher, except that it is the kind of advice you already agree with and still skip.
Number four, chapter twelve. No general should fight a battle simply out of pique. A few lines later the text says anger may in time change to gladness. Write the angry email, then sleep on it. Few lines in the book are this easy to use tonight. The same sentence warns that no ruler should put troops in the field merely to gratify his own spleen.
Three To One
Number three, chapter three. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. It is the first of five essentials Sun Tzu lists for victory. Choosing your battles is the oldest advice there is, and he says it plainly.
Number two, chapter three. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. Most people stop there. The text goes on. Know only yourself, and for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. Know neither, and you lose every time. Research the other side, and audit yourself.
Number one, chapter one. A winning general, in Giles’ words, makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The loser makes but few. This is the real text behind the famous misquote, and the most usable line in the book. Do the planning before you act. A note explains that ancient generals had a temple set aside for exactly that. Today it is a notebook, a spreadsheet or a quiet hour before the meeting.
The Misquote Desk
Now the quotes that fail the check. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer is not in Giles’ text. Every battle is won before it is ever fought is a paraphrase. It compresses chapter one, and chapter four, where the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won.
Build your enemy a golden bridge to retreat across is not in the text. The closest real line is number six on my list, leave an outlet free. In the midst of chaos there is also opportunity is not there either. The word chaos appears once, in chapter five, in a line about an army that stays proof against defeat.
Two more are paraphrases. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting blends chapter three, where Giles writes supreme excellence, with a line about subduing troops without any fighting. And appear weak when you are strong boils down chapter one, when able to attack, we must seem unable, and chapter five.
One honest limit. I checked one translation. Later translations word these lines differently, so not in Giles does not prove Sun Tzu never said anything like it. It means these exact words are not in this text.
My Verdict
Here is the pattern in my fifteen. The top five are about planning, knowing yourself, restraint and readiness. The bottom three are about deception, a dramatic move and speed. In my view this is a book about preparation, much more than about tricks.
Count the chapters, too. My fifteen come from ten of the thirteen. Chapter three gives me three lines. Chapters five, nine and thirteen give me none. Even The Use of Spies, which is the last chapter, did not make my list. That is only my opinion.
If I could keep only three lines on a sticky note, they would be numbers one, two and four. Make many calculations before you act. Know the other side and know yourself. And never fight out of pique. None of them needs an army, and all of them cost nothing.
Your Turn
Which line would you move up or down? Tell me in the comments.
If you want my full guide to the book, or the page with this whole ranking, they are linked below and on book explained dot com. Subscribe for more books explained, tap like if you found a misquote you did not expect, and I’ll see you in the next one.
