"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you…

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." -Sun Tzu

— from Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict) · Win Your Inner Battles: Defeat the Enemy Within and Live With Purpose by Darius Foroux

In the book

Beware, too, the cheap unity of a common enemy: groups bond fast against a shared scapegoat, justified or not, and that easy solidarity is one of the most dangerous forces in human affairs. The wiser counsel is Sun Tzu's — know yourself and the other side, and you need not fear the outcome of a hundred encounters; treat the clash like the old paradox of the immovable object and the unstoppable force, where the only escape is for one of them to move. [Here is the place for my own turbulence — write in, or let me tell you, about a conflict I handled badly, what it cost, and what I would do differently now.] — Communication & Conflict (Communication/Conflict)

Also belongs to

Related