Patton's Quotes & Sayings

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. — George S. Patton

Becoming a mother is the best thing that's happened to me. — Paula Patton

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances. — George S. Patton

I'm sitting at the bar, rearranging the order of my jokes. I'm under the delusion that I'm having bad shows because of some cosmic misalignment of words, phrases, and ideas. I may as well have cast runes into a spirit bowl, hoping that the collective heart of the audience would open to my necromantic call. Maybe that's how jugglers do it. Those guys never have shitty sets. — Patton Oswalt

I am a Soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight. — George S. Patton Jr.

Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are and probably more so. They are not supermen — George S. Patton Jr.

It's great to know that young black girls are seeing themselves on TV as leading ladies, and I'm part of that. It's just such an honor. — Candice Patton

I never take counsel of my fears. — George S. Patton

War is simple, direct, and ruthless. — George S. Patton

Do not make excuses, whether it's your fault or not. — George S. Patton Jr.

Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle.Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy whose banner is injustice and whose good is oppression. Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace. We must march together, all out for God. — George S. Patton

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash. — George S. Patton

If everybody's thinking the same thing, then nobody's thinking. — George S. Patton

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated. — George S. Patton

That's the point. Every kind of animal thinks its own kind of animal is wonderful. So people getting married think they're wonderful, and that they're going to have a baby
that's wonderful, when actually they're as ugly as rhinoceroses. Just because we think we're so wonderful doesn't mean we really are. We could be really terrible animals and just never admit it because it would hurt so much. — Kurt Vonnegut

Better to fight for something than live for nothing. — George S. Patton Jr.

The fixed determination to have acquired the warrior soul, to either conquer or perish with honor, is the secret of victory. — George S. Patton

Gen. George S. Patton Jr. fears no one. But now he sleeps flat on his back in a hospital bed. His upper body is encased in plaster, the result of a car accident twelve days ago. Room 110 is a former utility closet, just fourteen feet by sixteen feet. There are no decorations, pictures on the walls, or elaborate furnishings - just the narrow bed, white walls, and a single high window. A chair has been brought in for Patton's wife, Beatrice, who endured a long, white-knuckle flight over the North Atlantic from the family home in Boston to be at his bedside. She sits there now, crochet hook moving silently back and forth, raising her eyes every few moments to see if her husband has awakened. — Bill O'Reilly

A real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. — George S. Patton Jr.

Comedy is not supposed to be funny. Its supposed to tell the truth and then that's funny. — Paula Patton

I was able to come up with a couple articles for the magazine, I was able to solicit help from a bunch of my friends to contribute pieces: Patton Oswalt, Seth Green, Emo Phillips, Chris Hardwick, John Hodgman, and more. It's very much a "Weird Al" themed issue, so I'd like to think that there's a lot of "Weird Al" flavor throughout but I think it'd be generous really to call me an editor. — Al Yankovic

My solo music - I get up onstage, I improvise and it's my improvisation. When I get up onstage with Fred Frith and Mike Patton, then we're improvising together. Then it's not my music; it's our music. — John Zorn

If a person wants to be atheistic it's his God-given right to be an atheist. — Mike Patton

If I could find one word
that would shudder the air
like that frightened sob,
that wordless prayer
of my newly-born,
who drew one breath,
and with unopened eyes
sank back into death;
If I could break the world's cold heart
with that cry,
then this grief would lift
and I could die. — Kenneth L. Patton

Making African American films are hard in Hollywood. We need to rely on a support network and bring more cohesion to different filmmakers, actors, producers etc. It's a very difficult business. There aren't a lot of Africans Americans or people of color in high positions in Hollywood that we can green-light films. — Paula Patton

Think carefully about whom you model yourself after, because that's how your date - and the world will see you. And it is how you will come to see yourself. Who you are as a girlfriend is a harbinger of who you will be as a wife. Consider comporting yourself with the dignity, grace, and elegance of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. These were women of outstanding character, beloved by all and desired by men of substance. — Susan Patton

All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. - George S. Patton — Luke Smitherd

I'm a physical person. That's why I like action movies. I like to get real into it all, and get real down and dirty. — Paula Patton

To Hell With Compromises — George S. Patton Jr.

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! — George S. Patton

By perseverance, study, and eternal desire, any man can become great. — George S. Patton

There are three ways that men get what they want: by planning, by working, and by praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning or thinking. Then you must have well trained troops to carry it out: that's working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory; success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks. I call it God. God has His part or margin in everything. That's where prayer comes in. — George S. Patton Jr.

Take not counsel of your fears — George S. Patton

I learned very early in my life never to take counsel in my fears. — George S. Patton

Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences. — George S. Patton Jr.

America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser, this is why America has never, and will never, lose a war. — George S. Patton

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men — George S. Patton Jr.

The obvious thing for the cavalryman to do is to accept the fighting machine as a partner, and prepare to meet more fully the demands of future warfare. — George S. Patton

There's something kind of beautiful about that pure love of things. Like, "I'll show that I love the thing I love by hating everything else." — Patton Oswalt

I try and stay away from my comment section on Twitter. But for the most part, the response that I get usually is very positive - and so it's nice. — Candice 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

An incessant change of means to attain unalterable ends is always going on; we must take care not to let these sundry means undo eminence in the perspective of our minds; for, since the beginning, there has been an unending cycle of them, and for each its advocates have claimed adoption as the sole solution of successful war. — George S. Patton

It's like our country is being run by a bunch of bad alcoholic dads right now. — Patton Oswalt

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. — George S. Patton

90% of every art form is garbage - dance and stand-up, painting and music. Focus on the 10% that's good, suck it up, and drive on. — Patton Oswalt

A species in which everyone was General Patton would not succeed, any more than would a race in which everyone was Vincent van Gogh. I prefer to think that the planet needs athletes, philosophers, sex symbols, painters, scientists; it needs the warmhearted, the hardhearted, the coldhearted, and the weakhearted. It needs those who can devote their lives to studying how many droplets of water are secreted by the salivary glands of dogs under which circumstances, and it needs those who can capture the passing impression of cherry blossoms in a fourteen-syllable poem or devote twenty-five pages to the dissection of a small boy's feelings as he lies in bed in the dark waiting for his mother to kiss him goodnight... — Allen Shawn

Many, who should know better, think that wars can be decided by soulless machines, rather than by the blood and anguish of brave men. — George S. Patton

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. — George S. Patton

Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book! — George S. Patton Jr.

All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood. — George S. Patton

Make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. — George S. Patton

The apocalypse is coming, that's the one thing I like about George Bush, I really think he can get us into the ... apocalypse, like the BIBLICAL ... I really think he believes that he'll be the guy in the white hat. I think he's read the Stephen King novel The Stand a couple times, and he really thinks there's a dark man in the desert somewhere and he's gonna fight him or something. — Patton Oswalt

In forty hours I shall be in battle, with little information, and on the spur of the moment will have to make the most momentous decisions. But I believe that one's spirit enlarges with responsibility and that, with God's help, I shall make them, and make them right. — George S. Patton

If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself. — George S. Patton

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. — George S. Patton Jr.

That shit [religion] was going on all over the planet. They would tell them about sky cookies, or sky pie, or sky baklava. And as each of these civilizations grew, they built ships; they'd go visit each other, and the one guy would walk off the boat and go,'Hey, did you hear the good news about the sky baklava?' and the first guy went,'It's CAKE, motherfucker! You're dead! — Patton Oswalt

Let us not mourn that such men died, but rejoice that such men lived. — George S. Patton

The only way anyone ever won a war, is to make the enemy hurt so bad that he can't stand it any more.
... George S. Patton — George S. Patton Jr.

I always believe in being prepared, even when I'm dressed in white tie and tails. — George S. Patton

Because we fear other people's reactions and don't know how to respond, we allow them to violate our limits and boundaries. — Sue Patton Thoele

And I couldn't take my eyes off Pete. He ate dinner like he always did, in three or four huge, whoofing bites, before heading back out front to his cone of warmth, his coffee, his cigarettes, and ghostly tunes piping from his little transistor radio. And most important, to whatever thoughts drowned out the voices of his own family saying "hello" and "happy holidays."
I watched him because I couldn't believe that could be anyone's comfortable horizon. A tiny porch on a dark corner near a highway. We lucked out living on a planet made thrilling by billions of years of chance, catastrophe, miracles, and disaster, and he'd rejected it. You're offered the world every morning when you open your eyes. I was beginning to see Pete as a representative of all the people who shut that out, through cynicism, religion, fear, greed, or ritual. — Patton Oswalt

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack. — George S. Patton

If you look at another
woman, I'll rip your eyes out. Touch one and I'll cut off your hands. Kiss
her and I'll sever your tongue from your mouth.
"You don't want to know what I'll do if I find out your dick got
anywhere near another woman. So the choice is yours, you can live life as a
blind, mute eunuch with stubs at the end of your arms or you can close the
club... — Jenny Penn

You're never beaten until you admit it — George S. Patton

I don't fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, 'Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you? — George S. Patton Jr.

You cannot be disciplined in great things and undisciplined in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valour of other men. Have you seen a few policemen handle a crowd? — George S. Patton Jr.

Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy. — George S. Patton

The problem is, and I'm just as guilty of this, a lot of people see their follower count increase and mistake that for friendships. It's great to have followers, especially if you want to sell albums, promote shows, or promote your friends, but you still need to get outside and talk to other human beings. — Patton Oswalt

A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end. — George S. Patton

When in doubt, ATTACK! — George S. Patton Jr.

Americans play to win at all times. I wouldn't give a hoot and hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor ever lose a war. — George S. Patton

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

Someday, if we won, if humanity survived, we'd be in the history books. Me and Jake and Rachel and Cassie and Tobias and Ax. They'd be household names, like generals from World War II or the Civil War. Patton and Eisenhower, Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee. Kids would study us in school. Bored, probably.
And then the teacher would tell the story of Marco. I'd be a part of history. What I was about to do. Some kid would laugh. Some kid would say, "Cold, man. That was really cold."
I had to do it, kid. It was a war. It's the whole point, you stupid, smug, smirking little jerk! Don't you get it?
It was the whole point. We hurt the innocent in order to stop the evil. Innocent Hork-Bajir. Innocent Taxxons. Innocent human-Controllers. How else to stop the Yeerks? How else to win?
No choice, you punk. We did what we had to do.
"Cold, man. The Marco dude? He was just cold. — Katherine Applegate

Everything we have today that's cool comes from someone wanting more of something they loved in the past. Action figures, videogames, superhero movies, iPods: All are continuations of a love that wanted more. — Patton Oswalt

Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. — George S. Patton

I've always had a propensity for getting the cursive down pretty well. What it evolved into was my pseudo-waitressing job when I was auditioning. I didn't wait tables. I did calligraphy for the invitations for, like, Robin Thicke and Paula Patton's wedding. — Meghan Markle

Now 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 will always give up.
It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is
never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger
the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was
never tired ... You've always got to make the mind take over
and keep going. — George S. Patton Jr.

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 Jr.

She wants me to take out Patton."
Barron's brows draw together. "Take out? As in transform him?"
"No," I say. "As in take out to dinner. She thinks we'd make a good couple. — Holly Black

In landing operations, retreat is impossible, to surrender is as ignoble as it is foolish. above all else remember that we as attackers have the initiative, we know exactly what we are going to do, while the enemy is ignorant of our intentions and can only parry our blows. We must retain this tremendous advantage by always attacking rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, and without rest. — George S. Patton

Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. — George S. Patton

Once I finished breastfeeding, my mom's like, 'Don't take that bra off ever!' Mom, thank you. I wore a one-size-too-small bra for like, two years. It helps ... ! They don't fall, you teach them, you teach them to come back! — Paula Patton

Mick required far less hand-holding than Michael. Signing the Stones, though, had required a full frontal assault worthy of General Patton, one of my heroes. The final battle exploded at the Ritz Hotel in Paris back in '83. After months of relentless pursuit, I had them. All they had to do was sign when suddenly at 3 A.M. Mick goes mental and calls me a "stupid motherfuckin' record executive." I lose it. I reach for his throat. I have a vision of punching out all ninety-eight pounds of him. I stop myself, envisioning tomorrow's headline - "Yetnikoff Kills Jagger." Jagger relents, signs and from then on it's wine and roses. It was Mick - wily and witty Mick - who later that year plotted with my girlfriend, the one called Boom Boom, to throw me a surprise fiftieth birthday bash where Henny Youngman emceed and Jon Peters, Barbra — Walter Yetnikoff

I update my MySpace every day, I update my Facebook fan page, but that's about the extent of it. I don't want to get into extended conversations with people on MySpace, because there are friends I have extended conversations with every day. I'm on the phone every day. There's like five people I just call and yak with every single day. And that to me is my Internet. You can replace the Internet with five really smart friends. — Patton Oswalt

When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything. — George S. Patton

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable. — George S. Patton

Do your damnedest in an ostentatious manner all the time. — George S. Patton

I've always had a keen interest in the world. My father was in Patton's 3rd Army, and he helped liberate Dachau in the 7th Army. — Ed Royce

Let's shoot the works and win! Yes win it all. — George S. Patton

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. — George S. Patton

Go forward until the last round is fired and the last drop of gas is expended ... then go forward on foot! — George S. Patton

You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals. — George S. Patton

There is no such thing as luck, merely opportunity meeting preparedness. George S. Patton Jr. — George S. Patton

If I could have three wishes, one would be to take an '88 and shove that barrel up Hitler's ass so that cocksucker can cry like the little god-damned girl he is. And hell, after that, I wouldn't need two more wishes. — George S. Patton

There are scenes here and effects here that would make George S. Patton wince. — Joel Siegel

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 Jr.

The courageous man is the man who forces himself, in spite of his fear, to carry on. — George S. Patton

Achievers are resolute in their goals and driven by determination. Discouragement is temporary, obstacles are overcome, and doubt is defeated, yielding to personal victory. You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals. Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory. — George S. Patton

So let us do real fighting, boring in and gouging, biting. — George S. Patton

You must do your damdest and win. — George S. Patton