“No plan survives contact with the enemy”
Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II
“No plan survives contact with the enemy”
Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II
“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.”
Harvey Mackay (1932) American businessman and journalist
Ivan Konev (1897–1973) Soviet military commander
Quoted in "How Wars End: Eye-witness Accounts of the Fall of Berlin" - by Vladimir Sevruk - History - 1974 - Page 27.
“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Not when the enemy is me.”
Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga
This includes a common paraphrase of a statement which originates with military strategist Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke: "No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force."
Vorkosigan Saga, Cetaganda (1996)
“My times be in thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!”
Robert Browning Rabbi ben Ezra
Source: Dramatis Personae (1864), Rabbi Ben Ezra, Line 187.
Context: So, take, and use thy work:
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!
“A perfection of planned layout is achieved only by institutions on the point of collapse.”
C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993) British naval historian
Source: Parkinson's Law: and Other Studies in Administration. (1957), p. 60; cited in: Craig Calhoun (2012), Contemporary Sociological Theory, p. 254
“No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy, and time is the ultimate opponent.”
Charles Stross book Rule 34
Source: Rule 34 (2011), Chapter 1, “Liz: Red Pill, Blue Pill” (p. 16)
“You know what the difference is between a dream and a goal?… A plan.”
Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf
Source: Lone Wolf
Ben Aaronovitch book Whispers Under Ground
Source: Whispers Under Ground (2012), Chapter 25, “Ladbroke Grove” (p. 262)