George S. Patton Quotes

Achievers are resolute in their goals and driven by determination. Discouragement is temporary, obstacles are overcome, and doubt is defeated, yielding to personal victory. You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals. Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

This is a hell of a way to die.

In case of doubt, push on just a little further and then keep on pushing.

We must guard against becoming so engrossed in the specific nature of the roots and bark of the trees of knowledge as to miss the meaning and grandeur of the forest they compose.

...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.

I am the best damn ass-kicker in the whole U.S. Army!

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

I have studied the enemy all my life. I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders. I have even read his philosophers and listened to his music. I have studied in detail the account of every damned one of his battles. I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances. And he hasn't the slightest idea of what I'm going to do. So when the time comes, I'm going to whip the hell out of him.

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

Just drive down that road, until you get blown up

Plans must be simple and flexible....They must be made by the people who execute them.

To be a successful soldier you must know history. . . . What you must know is how man reacts. Weapons change but man who uses them changes not at all. To win battles you do not beat weapons - you beat the soul of man of the enemy man.

Success is not getting to the top - but how you bounce up from the bottom that counts.

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

Coward: someone who in a bad situation thinks with his feet

When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything.

The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared.

Wars are not won by fighting battles; wars are won by choosing battles

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

If I win I can't be stopped! If I lose I shall be dead.

Most battles are won before they are ever fought.

If we aren't victorious, let no man come back alive!

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.

Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.

All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

A good battle plan that you act on today can be better than a perfect one tomorrow.

Battle is an orgy of disorder.

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.

There is only one sort of discipline - PERFECT DISCIPLINE. Men cannot have good battle discipline and poor administrative discipline.

Many soldiers are led to faulty ideas of war by knowing too much about too little.

By perseverance, study, and eternal desire, any man can become great.

It is rather interesting how you get used to death.

There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.

Don't fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire.

The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is bearing arms.

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?

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.

A man is not measured by how much he can take and stand but by how fast he regains once fallen.

There is no proof nor yet any denial. We were, we are, and we will be.

Why is it that all battles are fought in the middle of the night, in downpouring rain, and at the corners of four different maps?

My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

The supreme measure of a man, is what he would risk his life for.

All glory is fleeting.

Pressure makes diamonds

You're never beaten until you admit it

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

You must be single minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.

The only way you get on in this profession is to have the reputation of doing what you are told as thoroughly as possible.

You just wait and see. The lily-livered b*stards in Washington will demobilize. They'll say they've made the world safe for democracy again. The Russians are not such d*mned fools. They'll rebuild; and with modern weapons.

Many, who should know better, think that wars can be decided by soulless machines, rather than by the blood and anguish of brave men.

War is the supreme test of man in which he rises to heights never approached in any other activity.

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.

The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That's the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.