Best George S. Patton Quotes
George S. Patton Quotes About Leadership, Funny, Winning, Death, & War! During World War II, General George S. Patton commanded the Third Army on a victorious campaign through France in 1944. He was an expert at tank combat. In 1885, in San Gabriel, California, he was born. There were many tales from boyhood about his ancestors’ heroic roles throughout the American Revolution and the American Civil War.
Inspired by his parents’ example and determined to assume their role, in 1904, he enrolled in the Virginia Military Institute. Despite his prowess with the sword, Patton was an accident-prone young man because he tended to fall. It has been suggested that his violent temper and constant swearing were caused by a head injury he sustained in his 20s.
Battles against Pancho Villa at Fort Bliss on the Mexican border in 1915 were Patton’s first true combat experience. When the American Expeditionary Force tank corps was formed in 1917, Patton was the first officer assigned to the unit. The Battle of Cambrai in France had shown the effectiveness of tanks. Patton studied this conflict and became one of the world’s foremost authorities on tank warfare.
He established the American tank school in Bourg, France, and educated American tankers to operate French Renault tanks. During the Battle of St. Mihiel, Patton fought his first battle. During World War II, Patton reached the pinnacle of his career. It took Patton and his army ten days to cross the Rhine and advance deep into Nazi-occupied Germany in 1945, freeing the country from the Nazis and taking back 10,000 square miles of enemy territory. He died in a vehicle accident on December 21, 1945.
Best George S. Patton Quotes
1. “If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”– George S. Patton.
2. “You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle.”- George S. Patton.
3. “Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”– George S. Patton.
4. “Infantry must move forward to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move…. To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Officers must set the example”- George S. Patton.
5. “No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.”– George S. Patton.
6. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”– George S. Patton.
7. “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.”- George S. Patton.
8. “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.”- George S. Patton.
9. “A man must know his destiny, if he does not recognize it, then he is lost.”– George S. Patton.
10. “Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.”- George S. Patton.
11. “Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men.”– George S. Patton.
12. “When in doubt, observe and ask questions. When certain, observe at a length and ask many more questions.”- George S. Patton.
13. 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
14. “Many soldiers are led to faulty ideas of war by knowing too much about too little.”- George S. Patton.
15. “A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.”- George S. Patton.
16. “Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.”- George S. Patton.
17. “Every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he’s not he’s a liar.”- George S. Patton.
18. “An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is a stupid lie.”- George S. Patton.
19. “Once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate would 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.
20. “All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be treated so.”- George S. Patton.
21. “An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.”- George S. Patton.
22. “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.”- George S. Patton.
23. “Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.”- George S. Patton.
24. “Always do everything you ask of those you command.”- George S. Patton.
25. “Discipline can only be obtained when all the officers are imbued with the sense of their awful obligation to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. Officers who fail to correct errors or to praise excellence are valueless in peace and dangerous misfits in war.”- George S. Patton.
26. “I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.”- George S. Patton.
27. “Go forward until the last round is fired and the last drop of gas is expended, then go forward on foot!”- George S. Patton.
28. “The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared.”- George S. Patton.
29. “There is no such thing as luck, merely opportunity meeting preparedness.”- George S. Patton.
30. “A war may be fought with weapons, but won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.”- George S. Patton.
