George S. Patton Quotes

77 Sourced Quotes

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

George S. Patton
Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

George S. Patton
My men can eat their belts, but my tanks have gotta have gas.

George S. Patton
A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.

George S. Patton
Sometimes I think your life and mine are under the protection of some supreme being or fate, because, after many years of parallel thought, we find ourselves in the positions we now occupy.

George S. Patton
War is an art and as such is not susceptible of explanation by fixed formula

George S. Patton
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 Chinaman 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 Asiatic characteristics, the Russian have no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.

George S. Patton
No sane man is unafraid in battle, but discipline produces in him a form of vicarious courage.

George S. Patton
The publicity I have been getting, a good deal of which is untrue, and the rest of it ill considered, has done me more harm than good. The only way you get on in this profession is to have the reputation of doing what you are told as thoroughly as possible. So far I have been able to accomplish that, and I believe I have gotten quite a reputation from not kicking at peculiar assignments.

George S. Patton
For in war just as in loving you must keep on shoving
Or you'll never get your reward. For if you are dilatory in the search for lust or glory
You are up shitcreek and that's the truth, Oh, Lord. So let us do real fighting, boring in and gouging, biting.
Let's take a chance now that we have the ball.
Let's forget those fine firm bases in the dreary shell raked spaces,
Let's shoot the works and win! Yes win it all.

George S. Patton
It is the cold glitter of the attacker's eye not the point of the questing bayonet that breaks the line.

George S. Patton
Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!

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

George S. Patton
Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

George S. Patton
Now in war we are confronted with conditions which are strange
If we accept them we will never win.
Since being realistic, as in mundane combats fistic
We will get a bloody nose and that's a sin.

George S. Patton
It is a popular idea that a man is a hero just because he was killed in action. Rather, I think, a man is frequently a fool when he gets killed.

George S. Patton
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

George S. Patton