Patton’s remark presents warfare as a field in which practical experience continues to develop understanding. The central claim is about learning: knowledge gained from study, training or previous experience is not complete, because participation in actual operations exposes commanders and soldiers to changing conditions, uncertainty and consequences that cannot be fully reproduced in theory.

The emphasis is therefore on experiential learning, or learning by doing. In Patton’s military context, repeated experience could refine judgement about movement, timing, logistics, terrain and the behaviour of opposing forces. The statement does not imply that formal preparation is unnecessary; rather, it suggests that practice adds forms of knowledge that instruction alone cannot provide. Although the subject is explicitly warfare, the underlying principle concerns how competence develops through experience.