In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.

The saying distills a hard-earned military insight: battles are as much contests of morale and perception as of firepower. Grant’s point is that there is often a psychological “hinge” moment when exhaustion, confusion, and losses make each side feel it has failed. Victory then belongs to the commander who refuses to accept that internal verdict and keeps pressing, exploiting the opponent’s simultaneous doubt. Read more broadly, it argues for persistence at the moment when quitting feels most justified—because that is precisely when the opponent may be closest to breaking as well. The emphasis is not on reckless aggression, but on sustaining initiative through uncertainty.