Ferdinand Foch Quotes

To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre , this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.

The distribution of troops devoted to the defence of a place includes a garrison, an occupying force, numerically as weak as possible; a reserve as strong as possible, designed for counterattacking and for providing itself, at the moment it goes into action, with a security service which will guard it from any possible surprise.

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

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

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

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

There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself.

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

My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat, situation excellent. I attack.

The unknown is the governing principle of war.

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

I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country.

Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.

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

The laurels of victory are at the point of the enemy bayonets. They must be plucked there ; they must be carried by a hand-to-hand fight if one really means to conquer.

In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective.

The truth is, no study is possible on the battle-field; one does there simply what one can in order to apply what one knows . Therefore, in order to do even a little, one has already to know a great deal and to know it well.

No study is possible on the battlefield.

Every manoeuvre must be the development of a scheme; it must aim at a goal.