Foch Quotes

In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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

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

Development," mind you - not just "advancement." For Foch is, and ever has been, the kind of man who would most abhor being advanced faster than he developed. He would infinitely rather be prepared for a promotion and fail to get it than get a promotion for which he was not thoroughly prepared. Nor is he the sort of individual who can comfortably deceive himself about his fitness. He sustains himself by no illusions of the variety: "If I had so-and-so to do, I'd probably get through as well as nine-tenths ~ Clara E. Laughlin

The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious. ~ Ferdinand Foch

To think meant to give room for freedom of initiative, for the imponderable to win over the material, for will to demonstrate its power over circumstance. ~ Barbara W. Tuchman

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. ~ Ferdinand Foch

Ferdinand Foch said, "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." What a tragedy to leave this life without a flicker of a legacy, without a flame of a witness. ~ James Poitras

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

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

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

Einstein - the greatest Jew since Jesus. I have no doubt that Einstein's name will still be remembered and revered when Lloyd George, Foch and William Hohenzollern share with Charlie Chaplin that ineluctable oblivion which awaits the uncreative mind. ~ John B. S. Haldane

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

Before them stood a small, erect man who fixed them with a withering gaze, Marshal Ferdinand Foch. After cool introductions, Foch opened the proceedings with a question that left the Germans agape. "Ask these gentlemen what they want," he said to his interpreter. When the Germans had recovered, Erzberger answered that they understood they had been sent to discuss armistice terms. Foch stunned them again: "Tell these gentlemen that I have no proposals to make. ~ Joseph E. Persico

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. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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

The unknown is the governing principle of war. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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

Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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

When Marshal Foch heard of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles he observed with singular accuracy: This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years. ~ Winston S. Churchill

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

No study is possible on the battlefield. ~ Ferdinand Foch

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

We're at a dinner party in an apartment on Rue Paul Valéry between Avenue Foch and Avenue Victor Hugo and it's all rather subdued since a small percentage of the invited guests were blown up in the Ritz yesterday. For comfort people went shopping, which is understandable even if they bought things a little too enthusiastically. Tonight it's just wildflowers and white lilies, just W's Paris bureau chief, Donna Karan, Aerin Lauder, Ines de la Fressange and Christian Louboutin, who thinks I snubbed him and maybe I did but maybe I'm past the point of caring. Just Annette Bening and Michael Stipe in a tomato-red wig. Just Tammy on heroin, serene and glassy-eyed, her lips swollen from collagen injections, beeswax balm spread over her mouth, gliding through the party, stopping to listen to Kate Winslet, to Jean Reno, to Polly Walker, to Jacques Grange. Just the smell of shit, floating, its fumes spreading everywhere. Just another conversation with a chic sadist obsessed with origami. Just another armless man waving a stump and whispering excitedly, "Natasha's coming!" Just people tan and back from the Ariel Sands Beach Club in Bermuda, some of them looking reskinned. Just me, making connections based on fear, experiencing vertigo, drinking a Woo-Woo. ~ Bret Easton Ellis