Kevin Stilley

  • Home
  • Blog Posts
  • On the Air
  • Quotes
  • Site Archive

June 7, 2014 by kevinstilley

George S. Patton – Select Quotes

patton

A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later.
~ quoted in “The Unknown Patton” by Charles M. Province, p. 165

A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.
~ from a letter published in War As I Knew It

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.
~ from his Speech to the Third Army

Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.
~ quoted in Interplay : The Process of Interpersonal Communication by Ronald B. Adler, Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, and Neil Towne, p. 383; and in The Military Quotation Book by James Charlton, p. 126

Every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he’s not, he’s a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. 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.
~ from his Speech to the Third Army

I don’t give a damn who the man is. He can be a nigger or a Jew, but if he has the stuff and does his duty, he can have anything I’ve got. By God! I love him.
~ quoted by Victor Davis Hanson

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
~ in a speech at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston Massachusetts on June 7, 1945, quoted in Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.
~ from his Speech to the Third Army

Men, you’re the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren’t good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don’t care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sons of bitches. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to you. Don’t let them down and damn you, don’t let me down
~ quoted by Joe Wilson in The 761st “Black Panther” Tank Battalion in World War II, page 53

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
~ in War As I Knew It

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 Chinese 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 amiable characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and they are all out sons-of-bitches, barbarians, and chronic drunks.
~ statement made on August 8, 1945 and quoted in General Patton : A Soldier’s Life by Stanley P. Hirshson, p. 650

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.
~ from a letter to Frederick Ayers, May 5, 1943

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.
~ quoted in “The True Story of The Patton Prayer” by James H. O’Neill in Review of the News, October 6, 1971

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains that victory.
~ in Cavalry Journal, September 1933

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
~ quoted in Pocket Patriot: Quotes from American Heroes, edited by Kelly Nickell, p. 157

When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can’t run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn’t fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. … As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence.
~ from an explanation to his nephew about his profanity, quoted in “The Unknown Patton” by Charles M. Province, p. 184

Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

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

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

I am in the pay of the United States government. If I vote against the administration I am voting against my commander-in-chief. If I vote for the administration in office I am being bought.

If a man has done his best, what else is there?

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

I’m a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.

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

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I sure as hell won’t.

Men are at war with each other because each man is at war with himself.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.

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

Take calculated risks. This is quite different from being rash. My personal belief is that if you have a 50% chance, take it!

There’s only one proper way for a professional soldier to die: the last bullet of the last battle of the last war.

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.

To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. . . . Here, I think, is a text for some eloquent sermon on the virtues of Christianity.

When we land against the enemy, don’t forget to hit him and hit him hard. When we meet the enemy we will kill him. We will show him no mercy. He has killed thousands of your comrades and he must die. If your company officers in leading your men against the enemy find him shooting at you and when you get within two hundred yards of him he wishes to surrender – oh no! That bastard will die! You will kill him. Stick him between the third and fourth ribs. You will tell your men that. They must have the killer instinct. Tell them to stick him. Stick him in the liver. We will get the name of killers and killers are immortal. When word reaches him that he is being faced by a killer battalion he will fight less. We must build up that name as killers.

You are always on parade.

You are never beaten until you admit it.

__________

RELATED

General George S. Patton Trivia

Index to Great Quotes

Harris Poll – Who Is Your Hero?

__________

Book Cover

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Front Page, Graffiti, Quotes, Worldview

November 28, 2013 by kevinstilley

Thanksgiving Pop Quiz

How many of the following questions can you answer?

__________

RELATED CONTENT

  • Thanksgiving – select quotes
  • A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
  • Insufficiently Thankful
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Declaration of Thanksgiving
  • 1st National Proclamation of Thanksgiving
  • A Thanksgiving Pop Quiz
  • An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving
  • A Thanksgiving Poem

 

__________

Filed Under: Blog, Pop Quiz, Trivia Tagged With: brainteaser, Pop Quiz, Thanksgiving, Trivia

October 23, 2012 by kevinstilley

Success – select quotes

success-and-failure

.

And the good fairy said, I won’t leave you money or pretty dresses but I will leave you the spirit to seek your fortune from your own efforts.
~ Louisa May Alcott, from a short story read by Jo in Little Women

He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.
~ Henri Frédéric Amiel

Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.
~ Bruce Barton

Success comes from taking the hand you were dealt and using it to the very best of your ability.
~ Ty Boyd

To find his place and fill it is success for a man.
~ Phillips Brooks

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.
~ Joyce Brothers

One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life.
~ Edward Butler

It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.
~ Eddie Cantor

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
~ Andrew Carnegie

Success is never final; failure is never fatal.
~ Winston Churchill

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
~ Sir Winston Churchill

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
~ Calvin Coolidge

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~ Bill Cosby

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
~ Bob Dylan

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
~ Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
~ Albert Einstein

If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.
~ Albert Einstein

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho’ he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life

Success is feminine and like a woman; if you cringe before her she will override you. So the way to treat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.
~ William Faulkner

Keep these concepts in mind: You’ve failed many times, although you don’t remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. . . . Don’t worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.
~ Sherman Finesilver

Success as I see it, is a result, not a goal.
~ Gustave Flaubert

If you wish in this world to advance, your merits you’re bound to enhance; You must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or trust me, you haven’t a chance.
~ W. S. Gilbert

Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you’ll have left is your character.
~ Vince Gill

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.
~ Jean Giraudoux

Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage and the mind grows heated;
Begin and then the work will be completed.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Succeeding in business and failing at home is a cop-out. For no success in the workplace will ever make up for failure at home.
~ Howard Hendricks

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
~ Thomas Jefferson

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
~ Thomas Jefferson

To succeed, it is necessary to accept the world as it is — and rise above it.
~ Michael Korda

To succeed is nothing, it is an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different, it is character.
~ Marie Leneru

If at first you don’t succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
~ Bill Lyon

The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.
~ Og Mandino

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.
~ David McCullough

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
~ Christopher Morley

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.
~ Willie Nelson

Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
~ Earl Nightingale

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.
~ Florence Nightingale

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but won’t taste good.
~ Joe Paterno

Who begins too much accomplishes little.
~ German Proverb

Unless you enter the tiger’s den, you cannot take the cubs.
~ Old Japanese Proverb

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
~ Anna Quindlen

Success is the study of the Obvious.Everyone should take Obvious 1 and Obvious 2 in school.
~ Jim Rohn

As individuals we live cooperatively, and, to the best of our ability, serve the community in which we live. Our own success, to be real, must contribute to the success of others.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

The barrier (to) success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
~ Theodore Roosevelt

Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions – the hero and the sidekick.
~ Laurence Shames

Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret to success.
~ Swami Sivananda

Success comes to the man who grits his teeth, squares his jaw and says, “There is a way for me and, by jingo, I’ll find it.
~ Clifford Sloan

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.
~ Bessie A. Stanley

Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.
~ Dick Van Dyke

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
~ Booker T. Washington

If you want to double your success rate, double your failure rate.
~ Thomas Watson

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.
~ Thomas J. Watson

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
~ Tennessee Williams

I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
~ Jonathan Winters

__________

If you think you are beaten, you are:
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If, you like to win but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost:
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will:
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are:
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
~ Anonymous

__________
Book Cover

__________

Related

  • Twelve Things To Remember
  • Master List of Great Quotes
  • Leaders Summit Recommended Books

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Graffiti, Quotes Tagged With: motivation, motivational, personal, Quotes, speaker, success, Ziglar

May 18, 2011 by kevinstilley

Trivia Compendium

Who (People)

  • Aztec
  • Bill Gates
  • Bruce Springsteen
  • General George S. Patton, Jr.
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Inca
  • Left Handed People
  • Presidents of the United States
  • Sherlock Holmes

Where (Places)

  • Alaska
  • Chile, South America
  • Hawaii
  • Hollywood
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Las Vegas
  • Mount Rushmore
  • New Mexico
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Oregon
  • South Carolina
  • Vermont

What (Animals)

  • Animal Life Spans
  • Bears
  • Birds
  • Camels
  • Cats
  • Cockroach
  • Dogs
  • Frogs
  • Giraffes
  • Gorillas
  • Horses
  • Insects
  • Lobsters
  • Ostrich
  • Oysters
  • Rabbits
  • Rats
  • Sharks
  • Snakes
  • Whales

What (Things)

  • Airport Names
  • Anatomy
  • Aviation
  • Art
  • Baseball
  • Bathroom
  • Beverages
  • Board Games
  • Breathing
  • Candy
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Congress
  • Cookies
  • Crime
  • Dental
  • Earth Day
  • Eiffel Tower
  • English Language
  • Fashion
  • Garlic
  • Gold Trivia
  • Hair
  • Headaches
  • Holidays
  • Honey
  • Ice Cream
  • Internet
  • Lakes, Rivers & Swamps
  • Laughter
  • Lent
  • Money
  • Names
  • Natural Gas
  • Numbers
  • Ocean
  • Opera
  • Peanut Butter
  • Pizza
  • Pollution
  • Potatoes
  • Population
  • Postal
  • Satellite
  • Saturn
  • Shoes
  • Sleep
  • Space Exploration
  • Sports
  • Suicide
  • Sunday School
  • Telephone
  • Thanksgiving
  • Universe
  • Watermelon
  • Weather

How…?

  • Fast
  • Large
  • Likely
  • Long
  • Many

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Graffiti, Trivia Tagged With: contests, data, Gameshow, information, knowledge, Trivia

May 15, 2011 by kevinstilley

Pop Quiz

Carol’s mom has 3 daughters. The youngest girl is named Penny. The middle daughter is named Nickle. What is the oldest daughter’s name?

Filed Under: Pop Quiz Tagged With: brainteaser, puzzle, riddle

May 14, 2011 by kevinstilley

Pop Quiz

In the eyes, it causes blindness. In the nose, it makes sneezes, but some people seek it out, and act as though it pleases.

What is it?

Filed Under: Pop Quiz Tagged With: brainteaser, puzzle, riddle

May 14, 2011 by kevinstilley

Insect Trivia

There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world.

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

The animal responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the mosquito.

A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

Mosquito repellents don’t repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they don’t know you’re there.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the best time to spray household insects is 4:00 p.m. Insects are most vulnerable at this time.

__________

Book Cover

(click on image)

__________

Filed Under: Blog, Graffiti, Theology, Trivia Tagged With: Insects, Trivia

April 14, 2011 by kevinstilley

Pop Quiz

If a father bull drinks 5 gallons of water a day and a baby bull drinks 3 gallons of water, how many gallons of water does a mother bull drink a day?

Filed Under: Pop Quiz Tagged With: brainteaser, puzzle, riddle

April 14, 2011 by kevinstilley

Read It Back(wards) To Me

WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW..

‘WASITACARORACATISAW’

This is the only English sentence, which even if read in reverse, will be the same.

Filed Under: Graffiti, Wordplay Tagged With: words

March 22, 2011 by kevinstilley

Pop Quiz

Which way is the bus below traveling?

To the left or to the right?

Can’t make up your mind? Look carefully at the picture again.

Still don’t know?

Pre-schoolers all over the United States were shown this picture and asked the same question.. 90% of the pre-schooler’s gave this answer. “The bus is traveling to the left.”

When asked, “Why do you think the bus is traveling to the left?”

They answered:

“Because you can’t see the door to get on the bus.”

How do you feel now ???

Filed Under: Pop Quiz, Worldview Tagged With: brainteaser, riddle

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 10
  • Next Page »

Recent Blog Posts

  • Discussion Questions for “The Language of God”
  • Billy Graham knew where he was going
  • Interesting quotes from “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln” by Stephen L. Carter
  • The Bible – select quotes
  • America’s Christian Heritage
  • Christian Involvement In Politics
  • Freedom – select quotes
  • Kevin Stilley on For Christ and Culture Radio
  • Early Western Civilization classroom resources
  • Early Western Civilization Final Exam

Currently Reading

Frankenstein

Twitter Feed

Tweets by @kevinstilley

Connect With Me On Twitter

Follow_me_on_Twitter

Connect With Me On Facebook

Receive My Monthly Newsletter


Copyright © 2023 · Executive Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in