Q0462

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.
Thinker Sunzi
School Military Thought
Source The Art of War, Attack by Stratagem
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Art of War, Attack by Stratagem, within the tradition of Military Thought. 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. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0462

MLA: Sunzi. “Know the other and know yourself, and in….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0462.

Chicago: Sunzi. “Know the other and know yourself, and in….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0462.

Same thinker

More from Sunzi

  1. 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.

All quotations by Sunzi

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme