Wit & Attitude Quote by Sun Tzu

Leadership, for Sun Tzu, isn’t a morality play. It’s logistics. This line slices clean through the fantasy that effective command means surrounding yourself with “good people” in the modern, HR-approved sense. The skilful employer doesn’t recruit saints; he assembles a functioning machine. Wisdom, bravery, greed, stupidity: not virtues and vices, but raw materials. The point is unnervingly contemporary: if you can’t place different temperaments where they do the least damage and the most work, you’re not leading, you’re just wishing.

The subtext is manipulative in the old strategic way: people are predictable when you understand what moves them. The wise man can plan, advise, and see the second-order effects. The brave man can execute under risk, the human battering ram when hesitation spreads. The covetous man is a reminder that incentives aren’t a corruption of strategy; they’re a central instrument of it. Reward and status are levers. Even the “stupid man” has a role, which is the darkest joke here: not everyone needs to understand the whole board to be useful. Some tasks require compliance more than insight; sometimes you need someone who won’t overthink, won’t question, won’t compete.

Context matters: Sun Tzu is writing in an era of warlord politics and bureaucratic administration, where survival depends on coordinating imperfect agents at scale. The line’s intent isn’t to endorse stupidity or greed as ideals; it’s to warn commanders against being naïve about human variety. Skill is not picking the right kind of person. Skill is deploying the kinds you already have.