Sun Tzu on why no one wins a drawn-out war. From The Art of War by Sun Tzu, about the 5th century BC.
Chapter 2 of The Art of War opens with a bill. An army of 100,000 men, it says, costs a thousand ounces of silver a day. That covers chariots and armor, glue and paint, even the guests.
Then it adds what the bill leaves out. The longer the fight, the duller the weapons and the lower the spirit. And the treasury drains.
The Art of War opens its second chapter with the daily cost of an army, then warns that no country has ever gained from a long war. When strength and money run out, rivals rise. Wu, the state tradition links to the book, kept fighting far from home. In 482 BC Yue struck its capital, and by 473 BC Wu was gone.
An imperfect peace now beats a perfect win too late. Practical advice: set a date to settle a running dispute, and offer a fair way out of it.
Well established · checked against 5 sourcesPick one running dispute and offer a fair way to end it this week.
“My brother and I have argued about our mom’s care for a year. How do we end it?”
Long Fights Cost Everyone and the other 11 ideas of The Art of War, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
