George S. Patton Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Most battles are won before they are ever fought.”

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

“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“Just drive down that road, until you get blown up”

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

“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.”

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

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

“...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.”

“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.”