Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

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

War is the supreme test of man in which he rises to heights never approached in any other activity.

Battle is an orgy of disorder.

Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.

All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence, utter, complete and bumptious.

If you can’t get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?

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.

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

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

An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of bullshit.

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

Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching.

Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

A man must know his destiny… if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will 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.

Often I have encountered in life that great disappointments have proved to be the road to future successes.

There are no practice games in life.

That was the only mistake Robert E Lee ever made. He gave suggestions instead of orders and it cost him the war.

Picking the right leader is the most important task of every commander.

Any man who could not make up his mind in less than forty-eight hours was not fit to command troops in battle.

A good commander will never express an opinion! A good commander knows!

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

When in doubt, observe and ask questions. When certain, observe at length and ask many more questions.

You must be single minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared.

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

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

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

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!

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

A civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon – it won’t work and you can’t fire it.

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.

They are a scurvy race and simply savages. We could beat hell out of them.

The Germans are the only decent people left in Europe. It’s a choice between them and the Russians, I prefer the Germans.

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

Everything is a ‘final heat’.

There is no “approved” solution to any tactical situation.

Lack of orders is no excuse for inaction. Anything done vigorously is better than nothing done tardily.

It is the unconquerable soul of man and not the nature of the weapon he uses which insures victory.

The enemy is as ignorant of the situation as we are.

Haste and speed are not synonymous.

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

Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?

A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.

The most difficult thing about being humble is not being able to brag about it.

Success in war depends on the golden rules of war: speed, simplicity, and boldness.

Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences.

War is the only place where a man lives.

There is nothing more pathetic and futile than a general who lives long enough to explain a defeat.

Moral Courage Is the Most Valuable and Usually the Most Absent Characteristic in Men.

When There Is Fear of Failure, There Will Be Failure.

If a Man Does His Best, What Else Is There?

By Perseverance, Study, and Eternal Desire, Any Man Can Become Great.

The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is bearing arms.

To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Muhammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have kept on developing.

Do not try to make circumstances fit your plans. Make plans that fit the circumstances.

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

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

The important thing in any organization is the creation of a soul which is based on pride.

You young lieutenants have to realize that your platoon is like a piece of spaghetti. You can’t push it. You’ve got to get out in front and pull it.

I want you to know that I do not judge the efficiency of an officer by the calluses on his butt.

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.

Pressure makes diamonds.

Everyone had a story about a family member who’d had to go in to hiding, or a friend who’d been dragged off to a concentration camp, or a house that had been destroyed by a bomb. Then they moved on to rumours about the war- about Patton, the American general who was making such good progress on the Western Front.

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

War is very simple, direct, and ruthless. It takes a simple, direct, and ruthless man to wage war.

Most battles are won before they are ever fought.

There is only one sort of discipline – PERFECT DISCIPLINE. Men cannot have good battle discipline and poor administrative discipline.

All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.

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

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

May God have mercy for my enemies because I won’t.

The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.

When in doubt, ATTACK!

What we are doing is to destroy the only semi-modern state in Europe, so that Russia can swallow the whole.

I am frankly opposed to this war criminal stuff. It is not cricket and is Semitic. I am also opposed to sending POWs to work as slaves in foreign lands [i.e., the Soviet Union’s Gulags], where many will be starved to death.

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body.

Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!

Human beings are made up of flesh and blood, and a miracle fiber called courage.

Many Soldiers Are Led to Faulty Ideas of War by Knowing Too Much About Too Little.

Do Everything You Ask of Those You Command.

Lead Me, Follow Me or Get Out of My Way.

A Pint of Sweat Will Save a Gallon of Blood.

A Good Plan, Violently Executed Now, Is Better Than a Perfect Plan Next Week.

Wars are not won by fighting battles; wars are won by choosing battles.

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

Always do more than is required of you.

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.