George Smith Patton Jr., KCB was a general of the United States Army who commanded the U.S. Seventh Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, and the U.S. Third Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. These George S Patton Quotes on war, leadership will motivate you.
Best George S Patton Quotes
- “Give me an Army of West Point graduates and I’ll win a battle… Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I’ll win a war.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” ~ George S. Patton
- “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” ~ George S. Patton
- “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” ~ George S. Patton
- “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” ~ George S. Patton
- “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” ~ George S. Patton
- “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.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Do not try to make circumstances fit your plans. Make plans that fit the circumstances.” ~ George S. Patton
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“May God have mercy for my enemies because I won’t.” ~ George S. Patton
- “To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Muhammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have kept on developing.” ~ George S. Patton
- “The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is bearing arms.” ~ George S. Patton
- “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle.Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy whose banner is injustice and whose good is oppression. Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace. We must march together, all out for God.” ~ George S. Patton
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“When there is fear of failure, there will be failure.” ~ George S. Patton
- “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
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“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” ~ George S. Patton
- “A civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon – it won’t work and you can’t fire it.” ~ George S. Patton
- “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.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Fear kills more people than death.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” ~ George S. Patton
- “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.” ~ George S. Patton
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“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” ~ George S. Patton
- “A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.” ~ George S. Patton, George S Patton Quotes on leadership
- “I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” ~ George S. Patton
- “No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.” ~ George S. Patton
- “The supreme measure of a man, is what he would risk his life for.” ~ George S. Patton
- “The more I see of Arabs the less I think of them. By having studied them a good deal I have found out the trouble. They are the mixture of all the bad races on earth, and they get worse from west to east, because the eastern ones have had more crosses.” ~ George S. Patton
- “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.” ~ George S. Patton
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“You cannot be disciplined in great things and undisciplined in small things.” ~ George S. Patton
- “When in doubt, observe and ask questions. When certain, observe at length and ask many more questions.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Pressure makes diamonds” ~ George S. Patton
- “Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Always do more than is required of you.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” ~ George S. Patton
- “You’re never beaten until you admit it” ~ George S. Patton
- “The most difficult thing about being humble is not being able to brag about it.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.” ~ George S. Patton
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“Wars are not won by fighting battles; wars are won by choosing battles” ~ George S. Patton
- “A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder… if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?” ~ George S. Patton
- “When everyone agrees, someone is not thinking.” ~ George S. Patton
- “The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” ~ George S. Patton
- “Often I have encountered in life that great disappointments have proved to be the road to future successes.” ~ George S. Patton
- “If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.” ~ George S. Patton
