Explore Quotes by Ferdinand Foch

No study is possible on the battlefield.

Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.

The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.

My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.

Don't drown yourself in details. Look at the whole.

In whatever position you find yourself, determine first your objective.

This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.

Regulations are all very well for drill, but in the hour of danger they are no more use. You have to learn to think.

The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last. That has never been the case and never will be. One of the great factors on the next war will be aircraft obviously. The potentialities of aircraft attack on a large scale are almost incalculable.

Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.

The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious.

Victory is a thing of the will.

It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.

One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.