Entice the enemy aside, take a circuitous route, and still arrive first: mastery of deviation secure… — Sun Tzu | Sophialys

Entice the enemy aside, take a circuitous route, and still arrive first: mastery of deviation secures positional advantage.

By Sun Tzu, from L'Art de la guerre

Key Arguments

By luring the enemy away and using a longer path, one can nonetheless reach the objective earlier.
Such outcomes display proficiency in deception and indirectness.

Source Quotes

4. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of DEVIATION. 5.

Key Concepts

to take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him,
shows knowledge of the artifice of DEVIATION.

Context

vii. Maneuvering (lines 406–489) — example of turning the devious into the direct