George S Patton Quotes

If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

May God have mercy for my enemies because I won't.

Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.

No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

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

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country

Pressure makes diamonds

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed at some indefinite time in the future.

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom

Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.

Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

When in doubt, ATTACK!

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

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

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.

...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.

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.

Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!

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.

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood

Human beings are made up of flesh and blood, and a miracle fiber called courage.

To be a successful soldier, you must know history.

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

I don’t fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, ‘Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?

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

A real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood.

Never draw a gun on a man unless you intend to kill him. And believe me, if you do intend to kill him he will already know it. Then he will feel the cold breath of the tomb.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more

You cannot be disciplined in great things and undisciplined in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valour of other men. Have you seen a few policemen handle a crowd?

Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are and probably more so. They are not supermen

An Army is a team. It lives sleeps eats and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit

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.

A man is not measured by how much he can take and stand but by how fast he regains once fallen.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men

continue to advance until you run out of ammunition. Then, dig in.

Always do more than is required of you.

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

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

Take not counsel of your fears

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.

He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle.

Do your damnedest in an ostentatious manner all the time.

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

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.

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

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. —George S. Patton

Death can be more exciting than life.

A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.

Battle is an orgy of disorder.

The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!

War isn’t about dying for your country. It’s about making the enemy die for his.” Gen. George S. Patton

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. ... You can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son of a Goddamned Bitch named Georgie Patton.

Son, only a pimp in a Louisiana whore- house carries pearl-handled revolvers. These are ivory.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.

All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don t ever let up. Don t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain.

Live for something rather than die for nothing. —George Patton

I am convinced that much more emphasis should be placed on history. The purpose of history is to learn how human beings react when exposed to the danger of wounds or death...

Just drive down that road until you get blown up.

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.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” —General George S. Patton As

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” —General George S. Patton, Jr. General

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

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 is never tired if the mind is not tired.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his

To Hell With Compromises

You must be single-minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.” —General George S. Patton

Fear kills more people than death.

I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought, But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a... fighter, But to die again, once more.

I do not fear failure. I only fear the "slowing up" of the engine inside of me which is pounding, saying, "Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?

Live for something rather than die for nothing.

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

Perpetual peace is a futile dream.

If you win, give the credit. If you lose, take the blame.

If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking. —George S. Patton Jr.

I hope that in the final settlement of the war, you insist that the Germans retain Lorraine, because I can imagine no greater burden than to be the owner of this nasty country where it rains every day.

A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied 10 minutes later" Gen. George Patton,

The truth has no agenda.

The object of war is not to die for your country, but make the other bastard die for his. -George S. Patton

It is not the American soldiers duty do die for his country. It is the American soldiers duty to make the enemy die for his country.

I was fascinated by all the great generals, from Alexander the Great to George Patton. I hated war, but I loved the warrior spirit.

The only way anyone ever won a war, is to make the enemy hurt so bad that he can't stand it any more. ... George S. Patton

God doesn't punish people who take their lives. They need him more than anyone else. - General George Patton

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

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

If everyone is thinking alike,’ General George Patton said, ‘then somebody isn’t thinking.

Si todo el mundo piensa igual es que alguien no está pensando.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. —General George S. Patton

Изпитанието за успеха е не какво правиш, когато си на върха. Успехът е колко високо отскачаш, когато удариш дъното. The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

General George Patton and others lamented that the Second World War had broken out in 1939 over saving the free peoples of Eastern Europe from totalitarianism—only to end, through the broken 1945 Yalta accords, ensuring their enslavement by an erstwhile Soviet ally whose military we had supplied lavishly.

Fixed fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity: General George S. Patton.

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.” -George Patton

At one dinner he [George Smith Patton] toasted his officers’ wives with the words: ‘My, what pretty widows you’re going to make.

When General George Patton tried to convince Eisenhower to make a push to conquer the city first, Eisenhower blithely asked, 'Well, who would want it?

General George S. Patton may have been uncouth, but he wasn’t wrong when he bellowed, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” General George S. Patton, Jr.

We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not just going to 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.

It is sad and shocking to think that victory and the lives of thousands of men are pawns to the "fear of They," and the writings of a group of unprincipled reporters, and weak-kneed congressmen.

The way Lind sees it, the only Western commander who ever mastered third-generation warfare was George Patton. All others remained stuck in second-generation warfare, a blunt, clumsy instrument that had long outlived its usefulness and only worked because of the overwhelming advantage in firepower they enjoyed over Germany.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash. —GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, COMMANDER OF THE U.S. THIRD ARMY IN WORLD WAR II

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

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

No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” ​- ​GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

No b****** ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b****** die for his country.

All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. —George S. Patton

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.   George S. Patton

No Bastard ever won a war by dying for his country

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” —General George S. Patton

The unleavened bread of knowledge will sustain life, but it is dull fare unless it is leavened with the yeast of personality.

The greatest weapon against the so-called “battle fatigue” is ridicule.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

General George Patton once said, ‘No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won by making the other dumb bastard die for his.

We're not just going to shoot the bastards, we're going to rip out their living goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.

Do not fear failure. Do more than is required of you. Make your own plans fit the circumstances. There is only one type of discipline. — perfect discipline.

Gen. George Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

The definitively contained battlefields that George Patton experienced in World War II got blurred in Vietnam and today are becoming increasingly merged with the civilian world.

Fixed Fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of Man. —George S. Patton, Jr. Not quite so much as fixed ideas are. —Patricio Carrera Mortal Danger is an effective antidote to fixed ideas. —Erwin Rommel

While Middleton was in an inner office with the commander, his driver slumped in a chair outside to catch a few minutes’ sleep. No sooner had he dropped off than someone stepped heavily on his feet. The driver woke angry. “Why, you son of a bitch,” he cried, “don’t you know I’m trying to sleep?” Then he saw he was looking up at George Patton. Patton leaned back and laughed. “Son,” he said, “you’re the first son of a bitch I’ve met today who knows what he’s trying to do.

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 in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.

John Coffee Hays, without formal training, developed tactical combat concepts that are still used today. Hays’ philosophy of giving men superior weapons, training them well, and utilizing speed and audacity on the battlefield would be adopted later by another Californian, George Patton.

Malaria prevention and eradication should be inspired by General George Patton’s advice: “A good plan executed violently today is better than a perfect plan in a week.” In this war of attrition, millions of people will be lost while waiting on researchers to finally emerge triumphant from their labs with the perfect malaria cure; yet meanwhile, there are plenty of time-proven, practical actions that individuals, families and communities can do today with what is already in hand that can decisively defeat malaria transmission if applied with vigor and disciplined consistency.

There are apparently two types of successful soldiers. Those who get on by being unobtrusive and those who get on by being obtrusive. I am of the latter type and seem to be rare and unpopular: but it is my method. One has to choose a system and stick to it; people who are not themselves are nobody.

Gen. George S. Patton Jr. fears no one. But now he sleeps flat on his back in a hospital bed. His upper body is encased in plaster, the result of a car accident twelve days ago. Room 110 is a former utility closet, just fourteen feet by sixteen feet. There are no decorations, pictures on the walls, or elaborate furnishings—just the narrow bed, white walls, and a single high window. A chair has been brought in for Patton’s wife, Beatrice, who endured a long, white-knuckle flight over the North Atlantic from the family home in Boston to be at his bedside. She sits there now, crochet hook moving silently back and forth, raising her eyes every few moments to see if her husband has awakened.

When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock…Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more.”[12]

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.

As a culture, we had no heroes. Certainly not any politician—Barack Obama was then the most admired man in America (and likely still is), but even when the country was enraptured by his rise, most Middletonians viewed him suspiciously. George W. Bush had few fans in 2008. Many loved Bill Clinton, but many more saw him as the symbol of American moral decay, and Ronald Reagan was long dead. We loved the military but had no George S. Patton figure in the modern army. I doubt my neighbors could even name a high-ranking military officer. The space program, long a source of pride, had gone the way of the dodo, and with it the celebrity astronauts. Nothing united us with the core fabric of American society. We felt trapped in two seemingly unwinnable wars, in which a disproportionate share of the fighters came from our neighborhood, and in an economy that failed to deliver the most basic promise of the American Dream—a steady wage.

Just as I was leaving the hospital, I saw a soldier sitting on a box near the dressing station. I stopped and said to him, “What is the matter with you, boy?” He said, “Nothing; I just can’t take it.” I asked what he meant. He said, “I just can’t take being shot at.” I said, “You mean that you are malingering here?” He burst  into  tears and I immediately saw that he was an hysterical case.   I, therefore, slapped him across the face with my glove and told him to get up, join his unit, and make a man  of himself, which he did. Actually, at the time he was absent without leave.

Doesn’t the superior lose control if his subordinates have a great deal of freedom to make their own decisions? The historical record quickly shows this is not the case. Generals George Patton and Bruce Clark both used mission-type orders in World War II. The German army has used mission-type orders for over a century, yet it has not been an army that was “out of control.” What changes is the way control is achieved. Instead of controlling by telling the subordinate what to do and then demanding constant reports to show he is doing it, control comes through the intent and the mission. Indeed, control is really replaced with guidance, while the intent and the mission “glue” the force together. There are

As a culture, we had no heroes. Certainly not any politician--Barack Obama was then the most admired man in America (and likely still is), but even when the country was enraptured by his rise, most Middletonians viewed him suspiciously. George W. Bush had few fans in 2008. Many loved Bill Clinton, but many more saw him as the symbol of American moral decay, and Ronald Reagan was long dead. We loved the military but had no George S. Patton figure in the modern army. I doubt my neighbors could even name a high-ranking military officer. The space program, long a source of pride, had gone the way of the dodo, and with it the celebrity astronauts. Nothing united us with the core fabric of American society. We felt trapped in unwinnable wars, in which a disproportionate share of the fighters came from our neighborhood, and in an economy that failed to deliver the most basic promise of the American dream--a steady wage.

But perhaps the best and most memorable way to explain the conflict that arose between honoring traditional honor, and honoring one’s individual psyche, can be conveyed in a story from World War II. In 1943, coming off his dazzling victories in the Sicily campaign, George S. Patton stopped by a medical tent to visit with the wounded. He enjoyed these visits, and so did the soldiers and staff. He would hand out Purple Hearts, pump the men full of encouragement, and offer rousing speeches to the nurses, interns, and their patients that were so touching in nature they sometimes brought tears to many of the eyes in the room. On this particular occasion, as Patton entered the tent all the men jumped to attention except for one, Private Charles H. Kuhl, who sat slouched on a stool. Kuhl, who showed no outward injuries, was asked by Patton how he was wounded, to which the private replied, “I guess I just can’t take it.” Patton did not believe “battle fatigue” or “shell-shock” was a real condition nor an excuse to be given medical treatment, and had recently been told by one of the commanders of Kuhl’s division that, “The front lines seem to be thinning out. There seems to be a very large number of ‘malingerers’ at the hospitals, feigning illness in order to avoid combat duty.” He became livid. Patton slapped Kuhl across the face with his gloves, grabbed him by his collar, and led him outside the tent. Kicking him in the backside, Patton demanded that this “gutless bastard” not be admitted and instead be sent back to the front to fight. A week later, Patton slapped another soldier at a hospital, who, in tears, told the general he was there because of “his nerves,” and that he simply couldn’t “stand the shelling anymore.” Enraged, Patton brandished his white-handled, single-action Colt revolver and bellowed: Your nerves, Hell, you are just a goddamned coward, you yellow son of a bitch. Shut up that goddamned crying. I won’t have these brave men here who have been shot seeing a yellow bastard sitting here crying…You’re a disgrace to the Army and you’re going back to the front lines and you may get shot and killed, but you’re going to fight. If you don’t I’ll stand you up against a wall and have a firing squad kill you on purpose. In fact I ought to shoot you myself, you God-damned whimpering coward.

Monday, September 17, 1945 We all drove to the airfield in the morning to see Gay and Murnane off in the C-47 /belonging to the Army. Then General Eisenhower and I drove to Munich where we inspected in conjunction with Colonel Dalferes a Baltic displaced persons camp. The Baltic people are the best of the displaced persons and the camp was extremely clean in all respects. Many of the people were in costume and did some folk dances and athletic contest for our benefit. We were both, I think, very much pleased with conditions here. The camp was situated in an old German regular army barracks and they were using German field kitchens for cooking. From the Baltic camp, we drove for about 45 minutes to a Jewish camp in the area of the XX Corps. This camp was established in what had been a German hospital. The buildings were therefore in a good state of repair when the Jews arrived but were in a bad state of repair when we arrived, because these Jewish DP's, or at least a majority of them, have no sense of human relationships. They decline, when practicable, to use latrines, preferring to relive themselves on the floor. The hospital which we investigated was fairly good. They also had a number of sewing machines and cobbler instruments which they had collected, but since they had not collected the necessary parts, they had least fifty sewing machines they could not use, and which could not be used by anyone else because they were holding them. This happened to be the feast of Yom Kippur, so they were all collected in a large wooden building which they called a synagogue. It behooved General Eisenhower to make a speech to them. We entered the synagogue, which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. When we got about half way up, the head rabbi, who was dressed in a fur hat similar to that worn by Henry VIII of England, and in a surplice heavily embroidered and very filthy, came down and met the General. A copy of Talmud, I think it is called, written on a sheet and rolled around a stick, was carried by one of the attending physicians. First, a Jewish civilian made a very long speech which nobody seemed inclined to translate. Then General Eisenhower mounted the platform and I went up behind him and he made a short and excellent speech, which was translated paragraph by paragraph. The smell was so terrible that I almost fainted, and actually about three hours later, lost my lunch as the result of remembering it. From here we went to the Headquarters of the XX Corps, where General Craig gave us an excellent lunch which I, however, was unable to partake of, owing to my nausea.

Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.” —George S. Patton

That evening [April 13, 1945] Dad [General Eisenhower], General Bradley, General Hodges, a group of aides, and I sat around talking. Dad had just sent his message of condolences to President Roosevelt's widow. But the thing most on his mind was the horror camp near Gotha that he had gone through only the day before. The scene of the atrocities had left him visibly shaken and he had not yet adjusted the entire episode in his mind. With him on the visit was the reputedly rough-and-tough George Patton, who had become physically ill. Dad had cabled home to ask for a contingent of reporters and legislators to come immediately to witness.

My men can eat their belts,’ General George S. Patton told Dwight Eisenhower, ‘but my tanks have gotta have gas.

Among the dangerous leaders of human history, my father sometimes mentioned General George S. Patton because of his charismatic qualities—but more often his example was President John F. Kennedy. Around Kennedy, a myth of kingship had formed, and of Camelot. The handsome young president’s followers did not question him and would have gone virtually anywhere he led them. This danger seems obvious to us now in the cases of such men as Adolf Hitler, whose powerful magnetism led his nation into ruination. It is less obvious, however, with men who are not deranged or evil in and of themselves—such as Kennedy, or the fictional Paul Muad’Dib, whose danger lay in the religious myth structure around him and what people did in his name.

We then went to the swimming pool which is beyond the reception room. This was the finest pool I had ever seen, with red-and-green submerged lights, and a diving board in polished duraluminium.

General George Patton drank a shot of cheap scotch before battle, Kent’s dad always said, and a glass of good scotch after a victory.

The best way to defend is to attack and the best way to attack is to attack. At Chancellorsville, Lee was asked why he attacked when he was outnumbered three to one. He said he was too weak to defend. —GEORGE PATTON

General George Patton wrote from long experience: “There are more tired division commanders than there are tired divisions. Tired officers are always pessimists.” The lieutenant was tired. His sergeants were not. They wanted to continue the mission.

The real hero,” Holmlund heard George S. Patton say just four months ago, “is the man who fights even though he’s scared.

George Patton, the general who led American troops into the Mediterranean during the Second World War, correctly observed, ‘Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

Always do more than is required of you. —GEORGE S. PATTON

A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed tomorrow.” – GEORGE PATTON

when the Americans liberated Ohrdruf, one of Buchenwald’s sub-camps. Ohrdruf is particularly important because General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, visited it on 12 April, just a week after it had been discovered. He brought with him Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton, and insisted on seeing ‘every nook and cranny’ of the camp, ‘because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda’.23 Here they observed torture devices, a butcher’s block used to smash the gold fillings from the mouths of the dead, a room piled to the ceiling with corpses, and the remains of hundreds of bodies that had been burned in a huge pit, as if on ‘some gigantic cannibalistic barbecue’.24 Patton, a man well used to the horrors of the battlefield, took one look at the ‘arms and legs and portions of bodies sticking out of the green water’ in the pit, and was obliged to retire behind a shed to throw up.25

In the first instance it would carry the American Seventh Army under the celebrated gun-toting General George S. Patton and the British Eighth Army under General (later Field Marshal) Sir Bernard Montgomery.

The only certainty life contains is death.’ Patricia Briggs. ‘A man on a date wonders if he’ll get lucky. The woman already knows’ is a quote of Monica Piper. ‘The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his’ is a famous view of General George Patton. ‘Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought’ is a quote from Sun Tsu’s The Art of War. ‘When you’ve got ’em by the balls, their hearts and minds will

General George S. Patton was once quoted as saying: ‘A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan next week’. Precisely

Society wants to believe it can identify evil people, or bad or harmful people, but it’s not practical. There are no stereotypes

Nigdy nie mów ludziom, jak coś zrobić. Powiedz im, co zrobić, a oni zaskoczą cię pomysłowością. - George S. Patton

Man of Controversy “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” —General George S. Patton General George S. Patton was a man that spoke his mind and usually invited much controversy upon himself in the process. Many viewed his capacity as a so-called “straight shooter” to be his best asset and also his worst detriment. There can be no doubt the worst of Patton’s tirades came when he belittled the very people he worked so hard to save - the Nazi Holocaust survivors.

In July 1944, General George Patton led the Third Army breakout from Normandy to liberate France. It was called Operation Cobra. Almost sixty years later, another Third Army commander, Lieutenant General David McKiernan, sought to evoke the illustrious episode. He named the drive to Baghdad Cobra II.

And how can man die better               Than facing fearful odds;               For the ashes of his fathers               And the temples of his Gods.               - “Horatius at the Bridge”,               Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay

If a man does his best, what else is there? — General George Patton Jr. (1885-1945)

George Patton and Winston Churchill are simpatico.

Eisenhower’s tragedy was that he permitted himself to be pushed into what turned out to be a trap. He had succumbed to General George C. Marshall’s suggestion that he take over the ground command in Europe and involve himself in the tactical conduct of the war, for which he was not actually suited. He took upon himself this enormous operational responsibility in addition to his strategic job, which alone was beginning to overtax his resources. Consequently, both strategy and tactics suffered, leading inevitably to a drifting beyond the Seine and eventually to the prolongation of the conflict.

—General George S. Patton A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Like Lono’s sword, he was both a symbol and a lethal tool; like the bayonet, his sole purpose was to be buried in the foeman’s intestines; like all of his prior imagined reincarnations, his sole purpose was, like some macabre butterfly, to metamorphose into a killing machine, and die with sword in hand.

Patton was ecstatic, writing home to Beatrice that “I know I am needed!” and “The Lord had a perfect cut for me and pulled his punch”.[46] He filed this incident away with numerous others, all of which pointed towards the inevitability of his own destiny; manifest on a personal level, this was American exceptionalism writ small.[47]

Give me four days of sunshine to dry this blasted mud…I need these               four days to send von Rundstedt and his godless army to their Valhalla.               I am sick of the unnecessary butchery of American youth, and in exchange               for four days of fighting weather, I will deliver to You enough Krauts to               keep Your bookkeepers months behind in their work. Amen.”[57]

Sir, it seems to me that You have been much better informed about the               situation than I was, because it was that awful weather which I cursed               so much which made it possible for the German army to commit suicide.                 That, Sir, was a brilliant military move, and I bow humbly to a supreme               military genius.”[58]

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Un bon projet exécuté tout de suite vaut mieux qu'un excellent projet exécuté la semaine prochaine.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. –GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON

When people pose the question about the noble men and women who have sacrificed their lives for my freedom and yours, they almost inevitably leave out the fact that many of these very same men and women participated in killing other human beings. Yet, as the famous American general George Patton clearly and profoundly articulated, “The object of war is not to die for your country. It is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his.

As General George S. Patton stated: “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

Cuando el general George Patton contraatacó al mariscal de campo Rommel durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se dice que en el fragor de la batalla Patton gritó: «¡Leí tu libro, Rommel! ¡Leí tu libro!». Patton había estudiado La infantería al ataque, el libro de Rommel. Conocía la estrategia del jefe alemán y planeó sus posiciones conforme a ella2. Nosotros también conocemos las tácticas del diablo.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. George S. Patton

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” ~General George Patton

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. —George S. Patton

His attitude to the dead and wounded was not one of guilt. “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died,” he would say later. “Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. ~ George S. Patton

Just finished reading the Koran—a good book and interesting.

We took over the so-called Royal Palace for a Headquarters and had it cleaned by prisoners for the first time since the Greek Occupation.

In the United States the fate of veterans was also fraught with problems. In 1918, when they returned home from the battlefields of France and Flanders, they had been welcomed as national heroes, just as the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are today. In 1924 Congress voted to award them a bonus of $1.25 for each day they had served overseas, but disbursement was postponed until 1945. By 1932 the nation was in the middle of the Great Depression, and in May of that year about fifteen thousand unemployed and penniless veterans camped on the Mall in Washington DC to petition for immediate payment of their bonuses. The Senate defeated the bill to move up disbursement by a vote of sixty-two to eighteen. A month later President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans’ encampment. Army chief of staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the troops, supported by six tanks. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower was the liaison with the Washington police, and Major George Patton was in charge of the cavalry. Soldiers with fixed bayonets charged, hurling tear gas into the crowd of veterans. The next morning the Mall was deserted and the camp was in flames.7 The veterans never received their pensions.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.”—George S. Patton

custom-tooled leather riding crop.

Then General MacArthur literally called in the cavalry--and the infantry. As thousands of government employees watched, a phalanx of soldiers marched against the veterans, forcing them out of their camps at bayonet point. And just to make sure, tanks were deployed, too--under the command of Major George S. Patton--as well as gas. Yes, it's true: Soldiers of the United States Army gassed veterans of World War I in the streets of the nation's capital in the summer of 1932.

By 1932 the nation was in the middle of the Great Depression, and in May of that year about fifteen thousand unemployed and penniless veterans camped on the Mall in Washington DC to petition for immediate payment of their bonuses. The Senate defeated the bill to move up disbursement by a vote of sixty-two to eighteen. A month later President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans’ encampment. Army chief of staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the troops, supported by six tanks. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower was the liaison with the Washington police, and Major George Patton was in charge of the cavalry. Soldiers with fixed bayonets charged, hurling tear gas into the crowd of veterans. The next morning the Mall was deserted and the camp was in flames.7 The veterans never received their pensions.

It wasn’t that I was a fan of Stalin; I didn’t like his eyes, which were beady and shifty in the news photographs; and his hands looked too small for his body. More important, I knew that there were no freedoms in the Soviet Union (or Russia, as we all called it), and I was sure that if I lived there I’d have to be against the government, and that meant I’d end up in Siberia. But I thought there was something amazingly stupid about the Cold War; Stalin was now the devil incarnate, only four years after he had served on the side of the angels, namely us. Either we’d made a mistake during the war, or we were making a mistake now. And there was a larger problem, of which Stalin was part: Why were so many Americans so scared, all the time? We were the strongest country in the world. We won the war. We had the atom bomb. In May, Truman finally broke the Russian blockade of Berlin with a giant airlift. So why were these people shitting in their pants when they thought about communists? The communists won in China, but that didn’t mean they were about to land in Los Angeles. And why did so many people think that the communists might be behind anything that made sense: unions, health care, free education? Even in 1949, there were people saying that we shouldn’t have stopped in Berlin in 1945, we should’ve kept going all the way to Moscow. George Patton, he knew how to deal wit’ dese bastids. Oney thing they respect is force.

May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won’t.

aside to give the British an open shot at Messina, George had every reason to be furious. After all, Montgomery had supplies from Syracuse, he had the eastern road, and he had the Seventh Army watching his back. What more did he need? Was Alexander’s job to make sure Monty snatched every last laurel of victory for the British Empire? Then again, George was in no position to argue. The Supreme Commander had just jacked him up over Seventh Army’s reports, and the friendly fire on Ridgway’s paratroopers had driven George deep into Ike’s doghouse. He worried, with some justification, that Ike was going to fire him. Ike had lectured him for months on the necessity of complete and seamless Allied harmony, and he had personally warned Patton that he would send home any general who failed to cooperate. Now, George fretted, Ike seemed to be looking for an excuse to fire him and replace him with someone more pliable. Someone like Omar Bradley.59 It was no time for George to open his mouth, and he knew it. Seventh Army would comply fully with Army Group orders, he assured Alexander. If called

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.” —General George S. Patton

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” —General George S. Patton

To be a good soldier a man must have discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and in his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to his comrades and to his superiors, and self-confidence bom of demonstrated ability.

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In view of such an atmosphere, it is strange that when he dressed for the half-hour trip to the center of his forces, Patton chose his “dress,” whipcord riding breeches, a custom-tailored light-khaki shirt and cavalry boots, and carried a candid camera and riding crop. More standard with Patton in combat was an item at his side, gleaming in the searing southern sun: the Colt .45 Single Action, strapped in its mahogany-bay Myres holster. Binoculars completed the showy outfit, together with helmet-liner and an old helmet.