Monday Motivation: Patton’s Speech To The Third Army

BlutarskyTFM8 years ago

When people think about American military leaders, General George S. Patton often comes to mind. He was without a doubt a larger than life figure. Although he was a brilliant tactician, General Patton had no shortage of personal flaws. His personal strengths and weaknesses aside, he did have one ability that set him apart from his peers: his foul mouth.

General Patton was known for using a wide variety of creative profanity to get his troops fired up. In his own words:

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 it’s way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.

Just prior to the Invasion of Normandy, General Patton gave a speech to his men that was later made famous thanks to the 1970 film Patton. If this doesn’t get you fired up for the red, white, and blue, then I don’t know what will.

Pretty badass. Interestingly, actor George C. Scott’s gruff voice doesn’t sound too much like Patton’s actual voice, which was far higher in pitch. While Scott’s rendition of Patton’s speech may seem awesome, the real thing is even better, and the full transcript of it can be found here.

Like the General said, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.” Get out there and win.

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Image via YouTube