Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

The first casualty of any battle is the plan of attack.

Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.

I have found in my experience of war, that plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.

Always plan for the fact that no plan ever goes according to plan.

Any clever person can make plans for winning a war if he has no responsibility for carrying them out.

It doesn't always happen according to the way you have planned things out but I feel if you have covered most of the aspects, it does help out there in the middle.

In strife who inquires whether stratagem or courage was used?

Plans get you into things, but you got to work your way out.

You are a fool to speak of last great battles...for the last great battle is always the next one.

I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

In his fairy dreams of war [Thaddeus] always made conquest the sure end of his battles.

There's nothing wrong with a plan, but remember Von Moltke's famous dictum that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The danger is a plan that seduces us into thinking failure is impossible and adaptation is unnecessary - a kind of ‘Titanic' plan, unsinkable (until it hits the iceberg).

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

I don't believe in deadlines, I don't believe in telling the enemy when we're going to withdraw.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

You must plan to be spontaneous.

Anyone that goes to battle goes to battle knowing the mindset and tactics of their enemies.

What is at a peak is certain to decline. He who shows his hand will surely be defeated. He who can prevail in battle by taking advantage of his enemy's doubts is invincible.

Always have a backup plan.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

No plan survives contact with the enemy.

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

Generals make plans. Plans go wrong. And soldiers die.