“Scars are medals branded on the flesh, and your enemies will be frightened by them because they are proof of your long experience of battle.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
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Paulo Coelho 844
Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947Related quotes
“Attack is the proof that your enemy anticipates your success.”

Variant translations
If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.
Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know not thy enemy nor yourself, wallow in defeat every time.
Literal translation: Know [the] other, know [the] self, hundred battles without danger; not knowing [the] other but know [the] self, one win one loss; not knowing [the] other, not knowing [the] self, every battle must [be] lost.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack

“God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.”