Q0168
Sunzi
A verified English rendering from the curated archive.
English
Know the other and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will not be in peril. Know yourself but not the other, and you will win one and lose one. Know neither, and you will be in peril in every battle.
Source context
This English passage is associated with The Art of War, Planning Offensives, within the tradition of School of Military Strategy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.
A short reading
Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Sunzi's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?
How to cite this quotation
APA: Sunzi. (n.d.). Know the other and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will not be in peril. Know yourself but not the other, and you will win one and lose one. Know neither, and you will be in peril in every battle. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0168
MLA: Sunzi. “Know the other and know yourself, and in….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0168.
Chicago: Sunzi. “Know the other and know yourself, and in….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0168.