Josef Nový's Key Ideas from The Art of War
by Sun Tzu

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men:

• it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.

Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.

After that, comes tactical maneuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult.

The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

When in difficult country, do not encamp. In country where high roads intersect, join hands with your allies.

Do not linger in dangerously isolated positions. In hemmed-in situations, you must resort to stratagem.

In desperate position, you must fight.

We come now to the question of encamping the army, and observing signs of the enemy. Pass quickly over mountains, and keep in the neighborhood of valleys. 

We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit:

(1) Accessible ground

(2) entangling ground

(3)temporizing ground

4) narrow passes;

(5) precipitousheights

(6) positions at a great distance from the enemy.

The art of war recognizes nine varieties of ground:

(1) Dispersive ground;

(2) facile ground; (3) contentious ground;

(4) open ground;

(5) ground of intersecting highways;

(6) serious ground;

(7) difficult ground;

(8) hemmed-in ground;

(9) desperate ground.

There are five ways of attacking with fire:

• The first is to burn soldiers in their camp
• The second is to burn stores
• The third is to burn baggage trains
• The fourth is to burn arsenals and magazines
• The fifth is to hurl dropping fire amongst the enemy

Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.

The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver. There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.

As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor.