George S Patton Quotes

224 George S Patton Quotes

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It takes at least eighteen years to produce a soldier, and only a few months to produce ammunition.
George S Patton

We can always learn from each other.
George S Patton

No man can have any pride if he looks as if he has to go to the bathroom or has just been there!
George S Patton

When I’m not attacking, I get bilious [gastric distress].
George S Patton

[On reading the Norman Conquest and studying the road network used by William the Conqueror when he stormed into France] The roads used in those days had to be on ground which was always practicable.
George S Patton

Quick freezing of men killed in battle turns them a sort of claret colour.
George S Patton

May God have mercy upon my enemies; they will need it.
George S Patton

Leadership is the thing that wins battles. I have it, but I’ll be damned if I can define it.
George S Patton

Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books. But the irrational tenth is like the King Fisher flashing across the pond, and that is the test for generals.
George S Patton

As a reducer of smell, lime is a very inefficient medium.
George S Patton



The few must run the many for the latters’ good. To hell with the people.
George S Patton

War is the only place where a man really lives.
George S Patton

[In the summer of 1917 on the new fangled tank it was] Not worth a damn.
George S Patton

[In January 1918] I feel sure that tanks in some form will play a part in all future wars.
George S Patton

You must school yourself to savagery.
George S Patton

It is my destiny to lead the biggest army ever assembled under one flag and to smash the Germans with it.
George S Patton

Had other officers had the courage to do likewise, the shameful use of ‘battle fatigue’ as an excuse for cowardice would have been infinitely reduced.
George S Patton

Have taken Trier with two divisions. What do you want me to do, give it back?
George S Patton

If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please, oh Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind.
George S Patton

This mess is the best I have ever seen.
George S Patton



I can tell a commander by the way he speaks.
George S Patton

I fear I shall get fat. I take lots of exercise each morning, including chinning myself and running in place four hundred and eighty steps (one quarter mile), in my cabin.
George S Patton

Just finished reading the Koran – a good book and interesting.
George S Patton

In forty hours I shall be in battle, with little information… It seems that my whole life has been pointed to this moment. When this job is done I presume I will be pointed to the next step in the ladder of destiny.
George S Patton

It was hazy and the enemy used smoke well. I could just see them and make out our splashes with our ships all firing like hell and going in big zig zags and curves to keep the enemy from our subs.
George S Patton

In such a close fight a soldier has no time to change his mind.
George S Patton

Any animal hooked up with a camel becomes disgusted and loses interest in life.
George S Patton

This all sounds very funny when you write it down and must have sounded a good deal funnier when expressed in my French, but it is exactly the way the Arabs like to talk.
George S Patton

Pompeii comes up to the highest ideals of what a ruin should be. It also gives you the highest idea of the type of men who built it. It is very unfortunate that during our attacks it became necessary to bomb the ruins. Luckily, no very great damage was done.
George S Patton

As a result of this hookworm, the Egyptian peasant constantly suffers from the bellyache and has his sexual vigor reduced. In order to relieve his pain and restore his vigor, he has taken to smoking hashish.
George S Patton



While I was guarding the three Italian prisoners, an antipersonnel shell burst about 100 feet behind me. I was hit in the rear of my right elbow joint. I did not realize I was hit until the Italians pointed out to me that blood was seeping out of my gas impregnated waterproof jacket around the wrist opening.
George S Patton

[When temporarily captured] The Germans competent. Italians had poor morale because of little faith in the war.
George S Patton

100,000 gallons of gas arrived in tank cars with no pump. Now we can’t get it out except by dippers!!!
George S Patton

[On coming to a mine field] Thanks to the courtesy of the Germans in leaving up warning signs [Achtung Minen or Attention Mines] the tanks avoided this danger.
George S Patton

To hell with them – they can’t hit me.
George S Patton

Let’s go get them. Who is with me?
George S Patton

I was trembling with fear when suddenly I thought of my progenitors [ancestors] and seemed to see them in a cloud over the German lines looking at me. I became calm at once and saying aloud, ‘It is time for another Patton to die,’ called for volunteers and went forward to what I honestly believed to be certain death.
George S Patton

Let’s go, let’s go!
George S Patton

I have always feared I was a coward at heart but I am beginning to doubt it.
George S Patton

Men of my blood… have ever inspired me…
George S Patton



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