Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.

It is often possible to decide the issue of a battle merely by making an unexpected shift of one's main weight.

If I had to take hell, I would use the Australians to take it and the New Zealanders to hold it.

I would rather he had given me one more division

The art of concentrating strength at one point, forcing a breakthrough, rolling up and securing the flanks on either side, and then penetrating like lightning deep into his rear, before the enemy has time to react.

I didn't die nor win.

To every man of us, Tobruk was a symbol of British resistance and we were now going to finish with it for good.