67 quotes
There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily. All because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.
Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
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.
We have destroyed what could have been a good race and we are about to replace them with the Mongolian savage and all Europe with Communism
There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder : Savage Solutions (2005)
My men don't surrender. I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star. In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.
Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
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.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
In the space of two days I had evolved two plans, wholly distinct, both of which were equally feasible. The point I am trying to bring out is that one does not plan and then try to make circumstances fit those plans. One tries to make plans fit the circumstances.
War as I Knew It (1947)
War as I knew it (1947), as cited in Oxford Essential Quotations (4th ed.), By Susan Ratcliffe.
It is amusing to recall that we fought the Revolution in defense of the rights of man,
and the Civil War to abolish slavery,
and we have now gone back on both principles.
The more I see of people, the more I regret that I survived the war.
The more I see of Arabs the less I think of them. By having studied them a good deal I have found out the trouble. They are the mixture of all the bad races on earth, and they get worse from west to east, because the eastern ones have had more crosses.
I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.
Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
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 may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you won't have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, 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!
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Some goddamn fool once said that flanks have got to be secure. Since then sonofabitches all over the globe have been guarding their flanks. I don't agree with that. My flanks are something for the enemy to worry about, not me. Before he finds out where my flanks are, I'll be cutting the bastard's throat.
Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.
Disputed
Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself.
Misattributed
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, because I am the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the valley.
Misattributed
I'd rather have a German division in front of me, than a French one behind.
Misattributed