#ate

If we wish to wrest an advantage from the enemy, we must not fix our minds on that alone, but allow for the possibility of the enemy also doing some harm to us, and let this enter as a factor into our calculations. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#strategy #war #art

Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#strategy #war #art

If you do not take opportunity   to   advance and reward   the   deserving,   your subordinates will not carry out your commands, and disaster will ensue. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#strategy #war #art

I watch as the waves interlace and entwine around one another, free of pattern or routine. They collide and wrestle like oblivious children, naïve to the absence to naïvety. Careless to the absence of carelessness. And I know what I want. I want to play, I want to live, I want to breathe. I want to experience the basic human lust for life itself. I want to bask in the imperfections of nature, bathe in the elaborate simplicity of our tiny world, relish in the beauty of culture, art and love. I know what I want, but the essence of need is another question entirely. ↗

— George MacDonald (The Runaway State)

#gobslapped #inspirational #the-runaway-state #art

Men create the gods in their own image. ↗

— Xenophanes

#gods #image #men #own #their

The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed. Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work. ↗

— Steven Pressfield

#procrastination #resistance #art

You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#strategy #war #art

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. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#strategy #war #art

Dalin must have whiffed the anarch in me, a man with no ties to state or society. Still, he was unable to sense an autonomy that puts up with these forces as objective facts but without recognizing them. What he lacked was a grounding in history. Opposition is collaboration; this was something from which Dalin, without realizing it, could not stay free. Basically, he damaged order less than he confirmed it. The emergence of the anarchic nihilist is like a goad that convinces society of its unity. The anarch, in contrast, not only recognizes society a priori as imperfect, he actually acknowledges it with that limitation. He is more or less repulsed by state and society, yet there are times and places in which the invisible harmony shimmers through the visible harmony. This is obviously chiefly in the work of art. In that case, one serves joyfully. But the anarchic nihilist thinks the exact opposite. The Temple of Artemis, to cite an example, would inspire him to commit arson. The anarch, however, would have no qualms about entering the temple in order to meditate and to participate with an offering. This is possible in any temple worthy of the name. ↗

— Ernst Jünger

#anarchism #art #autonomy #nihilism #society

There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform. ↗

— Xenophon

#best #contempt #general #himself #leads