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George S. Patton

66 quotes

“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.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The True Story of The Patton Prayer" by James H. O'Neill in Review of the News (6 October 1971)
“My men can eat their belts, but my tanks have gotta have gas.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the gasoline supplies for his tanks, as quoted in The Struggle for Europe‎ (1972) by Chester Wilmot, p. 473
“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see that they have it. This might mean war with the Russians, but what of it? They have no air force, and their gasoline and ammunition supplies are low. I've seen their miserable supply trains; mostly wagons drawn by beaten up old horses or oxen. I'll say this; the Third Army alone and with damned few casualties, could lick what is left of the Russians in six weeks. You mark my words. Don't ever forget them. Someday we will have to fight them and it will take six years and cost us six million lives.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 100
“A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 165
“When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. … As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to his nephew about his copious profanity, quoted in The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 184
“Always do everything you ask of those you command.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in I Remember General Patton's Principles (1984) by Porter B. Williamson, p. 174
“Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Textbook of Phacoemulsification (1988) by William F. Maloney and Lincoln Grindle, p. 79
“We entered a synagogue which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. Either these Displaced Persons never had any sense of decency or else they lost it all during their period of internment by the Germans…. My personal opinion is that no people could have sunk to the level of degradation these have reached in the short space of four years.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Post War Germany (1997) by Michael Brenner
“We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Pocket Patriot : Quotes from American Heroes (2005) edited by Kelly Nickell, p. 157
“There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Liberalism is a Mental Disorder : Savage Solutions‎ (2005) by Michael Savage, Ch. 1 : More Patton, Less Patent Leather, p. 4
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in 50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World‎ (2007) by William Weir, p. 173
“It is the cold glitter of the attacker's eye not the point of the questing bayonet that breaks the line.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in How We Are Changed by War: A Study of Letters and Diaries from Colonial Conflicts to Operation Iraqi Freedom (2010) by D.C. Gill, p. 70
“It is rather interesting how you get used to death. I have had to go to inspect the troops in which case you run a very good chance — or I should say a reasonable chance — of being bombed or shot at from the air, and shelled or shot at from the ground. I had the same experience every day which is for the first half-hour the palms of my hands sweat and I feel depressed. Then, if one hits near you, it seems to break the spell and you don't notice them any more. Going back in the evening over the same ground and at a time when the shelling and bombing are usually heavier, you become so used to it you never think about it.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Frederick Ayer (5 May 1943), published in The Patton Papers 1940-1945 (1996) edited by Martin Blumenson, p. 243
“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.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. 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. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The noise against me is only the means by which the Jews and Communists are attempting and with good success to implement a further dismemberment of Germany. I think that if I resigned as I threatened to do yesterday, it would simply discredit me to no purpose. . . This august lady [Fifteenth Army] . . . has the job of reviewing the strategy and tactics of the war to see how the former conformed to the unit plans and how the tactics changed. Were it not for the fact that it will be, so far as I am concerned, a kick up stairs, I would like it much better than being a sort of executioner to the best race in Europe. Later when people wake up to what is going on here, I can admit why I took the job. Am I weak and a coward? Am I putting my posthumous reputation above my present honor? God how I wish I knew... P.S. No one gives a damn how well Bavaria is run. All they are interested in now is how well it is ruined.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Beatrice (29 September 1945), published in The Patton Papers (1996), edited by Martin Blumenson Vol. 2 , p. 786