Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like:
Government in total control
The government could not only withhold money whenever they deemed fit but they could also devalue the currency.
Lack of privacy
The government will be aware of all of your financial information, what you owe and to whom, what you are spending money on, and what assets you have.
The end of personal security
No longer can you “hide” savings under your mattress. The government will always know how much you have and will have access to it.
Tracking of purchases
The government will be able to track everything you purchase—and potentially stop you from buying it. Let’s say it is something the political party in charge disagrees with, such as legalized marijuana. They can track you and prevent you from purchasing it again.
Tracking pornography purchases, abortion payments, tax evasion, and more…
While you may not think this is a bad idea, what if it goes a step further? What if they think you need to eat less red meat?
Hacking and data breaches
My head spins just thinking of all the ways a CBDC could be attacked by hackers or cyber terrorists.
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC).
The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu (“Master Sun”), is composed of 13 chapters. Each one is devoted to a different set of skills or art related to warfare and how it applies to military strategy and tactics.
For almost 1,500 years it was the lead text in an anthology that was formalized as the Seven Military Classics by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1080.
The Art of War remains the most influential strategy text in East Asian warfare and has influenced both East Asian and Western military theory and thinking and has found a variety of applications in a myriad of competitive non-military endeavors across the modern world including espionage, culture, politics, business, and sports.
When you start to read Sun Tzu’s words, you may realize that they have very real applications to modern life, especially if you are in a position of leadership or if you deal regularly with strategic questions.
These musings can be applied to practical problems you may be trying to solve, and they can also be good starting points for more theoretical reflection.
Topics that span from philosophy and wisdom to strategy and leadership, here are the most notable quotes from The Art of War.
Quotes on the Philosophy of War
“The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.”
“All warfare is based on deception.”
“It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.”
“The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.”
“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”
“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 defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”
“Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.”
“Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.”
“Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy’s purpose.”
“Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of the trigger.”
“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.”
“If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.”
“In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.”
“If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.”
“We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.”
“The experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss.”
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt.”
Quotes on War and Leadership
It is clear throughout The Art of War that victory is explicitly related to the strength of an army’s leader. Sun Tzu’s advice for generals and commanders applies to many kinds of leaders.
“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.”
“The general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth; he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven.”
“The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success.”
“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.”
“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”
“All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.”
“He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.”
“The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.”
“Maneuvering with an army is advantageous; with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.”
“We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country—its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps.”
“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.”
“No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.”
“What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.”
“When the general is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men, and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner, the result is utter disorganization.”
“If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight, even though the ruler forbid it; if fighting will not result in victory, then you must not fight even at the ruler’s bidding.”
“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”
“The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.”
“A leader leads by example not by force.”
Quotes on War and Strategy
Sun Tzu’s strategic counsel can still be used in the 21st century. Whether you are creating a business strategy or devising steps to pursue a personal goal, these quotes from The Art of War may offer some valuable insights and guidance.
“Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.”
“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.”
“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”
“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.”
“The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals.”
“You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.”
“O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.”
“Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.”
“Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle, we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order to fight.”
“In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch you can attain is to conceal them.”
“Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.”
“To take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of deviation.”
“Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your compactness that of the forest.”
“In raiding and plundering be like fire, in immovability like a mountain.”
“Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off in safety.”
“Forestall your opponent by seizing what he holds dear, and subtly contrive to time his arrival on the ground.”
“Walk in the path defined by rule, and accommodate yourself to the enemy until you can fight a decisive battle.”
“At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.”
“If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.”
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.”
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich to live, in the back of our pocket…. but that’s a topic for another discussion…
A few day ago… I think it was days… maybe weeks… Time is an illusion Einstein was right! Anyway somewhere in the past I decided to make a little bit more wider my mark on this digital world we all drown into :))) and I started to build up a Library !
As I do believe and live by the motto…
“Sharing is caring!”
Here with delight and joy I present to You, Free Spirit’s Library named how else than…
*Note: It's a Never Ending work in progress, as I am one little • that is bound to the same illusion of Time, as every other • is 😉 :))
So I would suggest you make frequent visits on the Discord server, as I add books and much interesting food for the mind all the time !
Thank you for your time !!!
May knowledge enlighten your path and make you evolve and thrive, if not for us then for the generations to come, so they can walk and look behind them, and say...
"Hey look, we are walking on shoulders of giants..."
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817-May 6, 1862) was an American essayist, philosopher, and poet. Thoreau’s writing is heavily influenced by his own life, in particular his time living at Walden Pond. He has a lasting and celebrated reputation for embracing non-conformity, the virtues of a life lived for leisure and contemplation, and the dignity of the individual.
Portrait of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), 1847. Private Collection. Heritage Images / Getty Images
A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thoreau’s books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism.
His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail.He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs.
Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an anarchist. In “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau wrote: “I heartily accept the motto,—’That government is best which governs least;’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—’That government is best which governs not at all;’ and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. … But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”
Legacy
Thoreau did not see the huge successes in his lifetime that Emerson saw in his. If he was known, it was as a naturalist, not as a political or philosophical thinker. He only published two books in his lifetime, and he had to publish A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers himself, while Walden was hardly a bestseller.
Thoreau is now, however, known as one of the greatest American writers. His thinking has exerted a massive worldwide influence, in particular on the leaders of non-violent liberation movements such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom cited “Civil Disobedience” as a major influence on them.
Like Emerson, Thoreau’s work in transcendentalism responded to and reaffirmed an American cultural identity of individualism and hard work that is still recognizable today. Thoreau’s philosophy of nature is one of the touchstones of the American nature-writing tradition.
But his legacy is not only literary, academic, or political, but also personal and individual: Thoreau is a cultural hero for the way he lived his life as a work of art, championing his ideals down to the most everyday of choices, whether it be in solitude on the banks of Walden or in behind the bars of the Concord jail.
Henry David Thoreau Quotes
“I was not born to be forced.
I will breathe after my own fashion.
Let us see who is the strongest.”
Henry David Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
Henry David Thoreau
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
Henry David Thoreau
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.
To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.
I love to be alone.
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.
A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.
There is no play in them, for this comes after work.
But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things…”
Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land.
There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
Henry David Thoreau
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“All good things are wild and free.”
Henry David Thoreau
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Our life is frittered away by detail.
Simplify, simplify.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden and Other Writings”
“We need the tonic of wildness…
At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
We can never have enough of nature.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods”
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”
Henry David Thoreau, “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…”
Henry David Thoreau
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.
It is not so bad as you are.
It looks poorest when you are richest.
The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.
Love your life, poor as it is.
You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.
I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”
Henry David Thoreau
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Things do not change; We change.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
Henry David Thoreau
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”
Henry David Thoreau, “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
Henry David Thoreau
“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
Henry David Thoreau, “Familiar Letters”
“I do believe in simplicity.
It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit.
When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms.
So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real.
Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.”
Henry David Thoreau
“The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves.
Why, a free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes.
Your church is a baby-house made of blocks, and so of the state.
…The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free!
It is the freedom of a prison-yard.”
Henry David Thoreau, “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“…for my greatest skill has been to want but little.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes
BitHouse 