Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Wind Book
Context: Some other schools have a liking for extra-long swords. From the point of view of my strategy these must be seen as weak schools. This is because they do not appreciate the principle of cutting the enemy by any means. Their preference is for the extra-long sword and, relying on the virtue of its length, they think to defeat the enemy from a distance.
In this world it is said, "One inch gives the hand advantage", but these are the idle words of one who does not know strategy. It shows the inferior strategy of a weak spirit that men should be dependant on the length of their sword, fighting from a distance without the benefit of strategy.
“Bandwagoning is a strategy for the weak.”
Source: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), Chapter 5, Strategies for Survival, p. 163
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John Mearsheimer 32
American political scientist 1947Related quotes
"Interview with W.Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne," in: Blue Ocean Strategy http://centres.insead.edu/blue-ocean-strategy/documents/e-ibosi2015.pdf, INSEAD document, 2015.
Source: Conversation, Cognition and Learning (1975), p. 261 as cited in: K.V. Wilson (2011) From Associations to Structure. p. 200.
“Strategy will compensate the talent.
The talent will never compensate the strategy.”
“If you don't have a strategy, you're part of someone else's strategy.”
Quoted in "The Military Quotation Book" (2002) by James Charlton, p. 83
Disputed
Source: The Poker Face of Wall Street (2006), Chapter 1, The Art of Uncalculated Risk, p. 23
Probably apocryphal. This quotation does not appear in any print translation of Sun Tzu. The first citation in Google Books is from 2002; no citation in Google Books occurs in a translation of Sun Tzu.
Misattributed
Chap. 1 : The Problem of Cooperation
Proposition 1.
The Evolution of Cooperation (1984; 2006)
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book