Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

The line urges a practical kind of humility: the future will always contain surprises, so the best preparation is not prediction but pattern-recognition. By studying how earlier people and institutions responded to sudden shocks—war, crisis, miscalculation, chance—you build a repertoire of tested responses and mental models. The emphasis is on learning from precedent to improve judgment under pressure, especially when information is incomplete and events move quickly. In a military frame (often associated with Patton), it also implies that doctrine and planning must be tempered by historical awareness: adaptability is strengthened by knowing what has worked, failed, and why, across different circumstances.