George S. Patton Jr. Quotes

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

There are three ways that men get what they want: by planning, by working, and by praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning or thinking. Then you must have well trained troops to carry it out: that's working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory; success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks. I call it God. God has His part or margin in everything. That's where prayer comes in.

The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.

You cannot be disciplined in great things and undisciplined in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valour of other men. Have you seen a few policemen handle a crowd?

Do not make excuses, whether it's your fault or not.

He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle.

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again ... You can look him straight in the eye and say, Son your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son of a Goddamned Bitch named Georgie Patton.

I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.

...It is a proud privilege to be a soldier – a good soldier … [with] discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to comrades and to his superiors, and a self confidence born of demonstrated ability.

An Army is a team. It lives sleeps eats and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit

The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

I hope that in the final settlement of the war, you insist that the Germans retain Lorraine, because I can imagine no greater burden than to be the owner of this nasty country where it rains every day.

I am convinced that much more emphasis should be placed on history. The purpose of history is to learn how human beings react when exposed to the danger of wounds or death ...

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences.

To Hell With Compromises

For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, 'Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?

Just drive down that road until you get blown up.

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Continue to advance until you run out of ammunition. Then, dig in.

Battle is an orgy of disorder.

A real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.

Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are and probably more so. They are not supermen

I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought, But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a ... fighter, But to die again, once more.

The only way anyone ever won a war, is to make the enemy hurt so bad that he can't stand it any more.
... George S. Patton

May God have mercy for my enemies because I won't.

Give me an Army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle ... Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war.

No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.

Every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he s not he s a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared.
Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some it takes an hour. For some it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor his sense of duty to his country and his innate manhood.
Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base.

No b****** ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b****** die for his country.

Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.

Never draw a gun on a man unless you intend to kill him. And believe me, if you do intend to kill him he will already know it. Then he will feel the cold breath of the tomb.