George S. Patton Quotes

Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired... You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going.

Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader.

The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence.

Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so.

There is no such thing as luck, merely opportunity meeting preparedness. George S. Patton Jr.

Do your damnedest in an ostentatious manner all the time.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

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

Never let the enemy pick the battle site.

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.

Battle... brings out all that is best.

If everybody's thinking the same thing, then nobody's thinking.

For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

Successful generals make plans to fit circumstances, but do not try to create circumstances to fit plans.

In my opinion, the M1 rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised

The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.

It is only by doing things others have not that one can advance.

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

When everyone agrees, someone is not thinking.

Let us not mourn that such men died, but rejoice that such men lived.

War is an art and as such is not susceptible of explanation by fixed formula

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

If I could have three wishes, one would be to take an '88 and shove that barrel up Hitler's ass so that cocksucker can cry like the little god-damned girl he is. And hell, after that, I wouldn't need two more wishes.

...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.

Fear kills more people than death.

Remember wars are won by killing people. The more we kill, the quicker we'll get out of this war.

Close the playand keep the store open nights.

Those who live in fear die a thousand deaths.

Staff officers of inharmonious disposition, irrespective of their ability, must be removed. A staff cannot function unless it is a united family.

Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

There's only one way for a professional soldier to die. That's from the last bullet of the last battle of the last war.

I have the utmost confidence that through your efforts we will eventually beat the hell out of those bastards - You name them; I'll shoot them!

You must do your damdest and win.

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

A man must know his destiny.

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

Let's shoot the works and win! Yes win it all.