I’ve seen this quote, or variants of it attributed to various people, including John Steinbeck, David Hackworth, and Colonel Jeff Cooper. Nowhere amongst the thousands of quotation sites on the internet does there seem to be an actual citation.
“If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.”
“If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.”
So who originally said it?
Tim Ferriss Said it on Twitter; I googled it only because I truly didn’t know. You learn something new everyday.
Perhaps the same person, who said “Only fools learn from their own mistakes”. I find both quotes annoying and unrealistic. As a civilian, any fight against a criminal who spent most of his life learning how to ambush and hurt people, you are at a disadvantage.
I believe Jeff Cooper is credited with the “Tactics suck” line. The second line I believe goes to Mr Fairbairan. That said I could be wrong. I (and fellow designer) have been credited with coming up with the term “IPHY” (pronounced “IPPY”) in rifle scope lore alluding to “1” per One Hundred Yards" with relation to reticals and adjustments prior to my work at US Optics. The conversant and myself are not quite sure who came up with the acronym first so we call it even. In conversation about the topic we accuse each other of coming up with the term. Much as the above statements can also be attributed to any Sargent worth his salt, the latter comment is for higher ranking individuals.
Cheers,
Craig6
This is what I keep finding but not where yet in his many writings. Will keep looking. 
― Steinbeck John
The Art of War by Sun Su
I have to follow that up.
The internet is horrible and wonderful at the same time. A lot of these misattributed quotes were wrong before the internet came along; the internet just made it easy to reach a wide audience in a short amount of time. But there are also some good sites that research quotes. Most of the time, famous quotes are really hard to nail down, because after a few thousand years of human history, it’s difficult to have a unique thought that someone else hasn’t already recorded in one form or another.
Everything I find attributes the quote to John Steinbeck, but I haven’t seen it actually cited (when / where he said it).
Exactly. 
It’s always cool when DuckDuckGo tells me what I want to hear!
“The Purpose of fighting is to Win.” That’s definitely Steinbeck, from King Arthur and his Noble Knights.
There was once a man who was asked What is your style? His response, The art of fighting without fighting. Guess who???
Without “looking it up” my memory is BL.
Am I right?
Correctamundo brother @Gary_H 
Enter the Dragon great movie and I’m a big fan of his.
LtCol Jeff Cooper
David Hackworth
I think it was right before he set the guy back on a boat with no paddle 
Yes that was a great quote.
The only fair fights I found myself in was in the ring as an amateur boxer. Any thing else I consider an assault & will use the force that I decide is necessary to protect myself or another innocent person. Fair does not enter into that in any way, shape or form. If “verbal Judo” can de-escalate the situation - FANTASTIC!
