A few George Patton quotes:
“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.”
“Battle is an orgy of disorder.”
“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
“I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.”
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”
“Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.”
“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.”
“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!”
“Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.”
Here’s George C. Scott playing him in the movie Patton:
Derek
on 09 Apr 08My personal favourite from Patton:
“Rommel, you magnificent bastard … I READ YOUR BOOK!”
I like to replace “Rommel” with whoever happens to be around me at the time. It looks lame in print, but it’s hilarious in the movie—which is otherwise shitty.
Don Schenck
on 09 Apr 08I read this book about Patton in 1990. Great stuff!
Phil
on 09 Apr 08If only we had generals like this today. Can you imagine a general like Petraeus saying the following on CNN?
“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!”
Chris
on 09 Apr 08Derek. I love that quote too. But Patton is NOT a shitty movie. I think that scene of the battle aftermath depicts more horror than any CGI inferno.
John
on 09 Apr 08My grandfather was in the Army infantry in World War II and served under General Patton. He never spoke of the war (like a lot of WWII veterans) but my grandmother before has mentioned the respect both he and she had for Patton. With that background I watched the movie for the first time about a year ago and was completely impressed – fantastic must watch movie. It’s interesting though that Patton, like Churchill, probably wouldn’t fare so well in the present day. These guys needed wars. Lived for war. Warmongers or not, these guys were the original GTDers and by god got it done.
Anthony Baker
on 09 Apr 08Okay, I really have to watch Patton again. Brilliant quotes.
sw0rdfish
on 09 Apr 08Briam
on 09 Apr 08“OK, I’ll drink to that. One son of a bitch to another.”
Paul
on 09 Apr 08Best. Blog. Post. and Thread. Evar.
We need more people like Patton in ‘Merica. People who know how to execute a plan, say what they mean without reservation, and have some backbone. We’re too worried about being sued, being P.C., or our own selfish gains nowadays.
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.”
“Always do everything you ask of those you command.”
Sam
on 09 Apr 08Another great one:
The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinese or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other amiable characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and they are all out sons-of-bitches, barbarians, and chronic drunks.
Don Schenck
on 09 Apr 08@Sam: Did you just describe my family reunion?
Craig
on 09 Apr 08“Give me an army of West Point graduates, I’ll win a battle. Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I’ll win a war!” Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
Derek
on 09 Apr 08@Chris: ‘tis true that the movie does a good job of depicting war as complete and total madness. It’s also important to remember the era – this film was released in the midst of the great bed-shitting known as the Vietnam war. But as a film, most of it is kinda … well, it doesn’t age so well.
Patton’s eccentric quotes and quirky bravado aside, he was a racist war monger. I don’t know if America – or anyone – would benefit from more Pattons.
Alan
on 09 Apr 08We need more people with spines and intelligence like patton.
Dennis
on 09 Apr 08I am an European and don’t know much about Patton. But from what I read in the comments he must had be a dislikable and racist man. What is so great about rudeness?
Brian
on 09 Apr 08@Derek: I wouldn’t call Patton a “racist warmonger” as much as I would call him a professional soldier of his time. And a great one, at that. One of the greats of all time. I’ve read a few different biographies of the man and his net positives far outweigh his negatives.
For More Patton goodness, beyond these stock quotes do check out PattonHQ, especially Chapter 12, Combat Principles. With a little imagination you can apply alot of them as metaphors wo whatever you’re doing (here’s a few that I love):
“There is no approved solution to any tactical situation.”
“Never yield ground. It is cheaper to hold what you have than to retake what you have lost.”
“To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Move forward out of fire.”
GeeIWonder
on 09 Apr 08Patton was a weapon, like any other. Almost as dangerous to his own side. Without Ike, he could’ve easily lost his own men.
And hopefully people realize ‘Patton’ the movie and Patton the man are not the same—the lines in the movie are great.
Keith
on 09 Apr 08I’d like more posts which praise anti-Semitic & racist white men who have ordered the death of thousands of humans for the purpose of protecting the investments of wealthy bankers. Maybe you could post re-enactment videos of IWW or Chinese lynchings next time.
Martin
on 09 Apr 08Being german, I’m grateful that he helped free the world from the Nazis – but his militaristic views are not desirable in civilian or business life.
Smed
on 09 Apr 08I don’t think Keith deserved the troll cap for that. After all, War is a Racket.
Don Schenck
on 09 Apr 08Smed is, of course, correct. To hell with the Jews and any other peoples standing in the way of MEIN FURHER!
/sarcasm
Berserk
on 09 Apr 08@Brian:
“There is no approved solution to any tactical situation” is in my mind vastly superior to “Never yield ground. It is cheaper to hold what you have than to retake what you have lost.”, especially since the latter contradicts the first. Many have lost battles (and need I say WWI – cheap one that) due to staying when they should have swayed. (I see a ‘judo’ comment coming..)
cubiclegrrl
on 09 Apr 08I’m glad that Patton was on our side—and so should he, actually. (Hitler would have had him shot out of hand had he been fighting under the Nazi banner.) But he was also a man of his time. I honestly believe that he would have made a balls-up of Vietnam had he lived to fight it, b/c it was a war and an enemy that he wouldn’t have grokked in the slightest.
In those armchair speculation games of “what-if”, my jury’s still out on how well he would have done in 2003-2008 Iraq. On one hand, I’m not sure he would have coped at all well with a (theoretically) all-volunteer force-and a highly integrated one at that. On the other hand, he would have (gasp!) actually grasped the lessons of the Crusades. And I can’t see him doing something as stupid and dogmatic as de-Baathifying the Iraqi army and civil service. And you can d-ned sure bet that the Halliburton/KBR and Blackwater’s bull$#!+ would have been tolerated for a New York nanosecond.
Great movie, for all its liberties with the record-I think it’s timeless. But, then, I was a History major. ;)
cubiclegrrl
on 09 Apr 08Whoops—should’a said ”...wouldn’t have been tolerated for a New York nanosecond.”
Thomas Allen
on 10 Apr 08Europeans have never understood this since the day America broke from England: We love rudeness when the rude person is right, even when they’re a little bit wrong. The energy that makes someone forceful and rude has been filtered and distilled over the centuries into a great, unprecedentedly productive nation. This is why there’s a constant, persistent backlash against political correctness, or “PC”, even though it’s probably right in principle to take extra measures to avoid offending people.
I’m European, South American, etc. in many ways, but my core always has been and always will be American because I share some values that most of the world can’t understand.
GeeIWonder
on 10 Apr 08I’m European, South American, etc. in many ways, but my core always has been and always will be American because I share some values that most of the world can’t understand.
Rarely have I seen such a ridiculous statement,
dan
on 10 Apr 08“Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.”
Can someone please explain that to me? I honestly don’t understand it.
Don Schenck
on 10 Apr 08@Dan: A corollary: What people most complain about is what they are guilty of.
Examples:
A preacher rails against homosexuality or adultery.
Your spouse accuses of you “not listening”.
Management says the production workers aren’t productive.
Anonymous Coward
on 10 Apr 08Europeans have never understood this since the day America broke from England: We love rudeness when the rude person is right, even when they’re a little bit wrong.
Americans appreciate directness. It seems too blunt for many Europeans, sometimes even rude. The direct and to the point qualities we employ in the workplace is probably why the Patton quotes resonate so much in this blog post.
cubiclegrrl
on 10 Apr 08@Dan: Cynicism is a form of learned helplessness. We resort to it as a way to prevent our hopes from being raised and dashed to the ground. So if you can figure out what people are cynical about, you can determine what they no longer dare to hope for. That someone has to resort to poisoning their own hope indicates a need that is not being met. Mere wants don’t tend to provoke that behavior.
That’s my tuppence-worth anyway…
Don Schenck
on 10 Apr 08@cubiclegrrl: Yeah … right … whatev …
:)
C. L. Staten
on 11 Apr 08It would appear that too many people in this thread are lost in some sort of timewarp and want to judge Gen. Patton, based on the “politically correct” concepts of today.
G. S. Patton was a man of his times, not ours. Most military experts acknowledge that he was a brillant tactician and outstanding strategist.
Maybe critics might remember that America and her allies (England principal among them) were attacked by the Germans and Japanese…not the other way around. This was a “defensive war,” if that somehow makes people feel better about it.
I’ll leave you with a quote:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund BurkeGen. Patton wasn’t one to do nothing.
Sergey Brin
on 12 Apr 08Giving keith the troll hat is so lame. The only one here to have the guts to say: leave generals, kills and wars out of the innovative culture of the web.
Patton had to kill so many people because he probably had to do it in his times but there is no reason to praise or quote him. There are enough good quotes out there.
This discussion is closed.