On Foch Quotes

#1. Ferdinand Foch said, "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." What a tragedy to leave this life without a flicker of a legacy, without a flame of a witness.

James Poitras

#2. Victory is a thing of the will.

Ferdinand Foch

#3. One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.

Ferdinand Foch

#4. The laurels of victory are at the point of the enemy bayonets. They must be plucked there ; they must be carried by a hand-to-hand fight if one really means to conquer.

Ferdinand Foch

#5. To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre , this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.

Ferdinand Foch

#6. Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.

Ferdinand Foch

#7. The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious.

Ferdinand Foch

#8. In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective.

Ferdinand Foch

#9. No study is possible on the battlefield.

Ferdinand Foch

#10. The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

Ferdinand Foch

#11. Don't drown yourself in details. Look at the whole.

Ferdinand Foch

#12. The truth is, no study is possible on the battle-field; one does there simply what one can in order to apply what one knows . Therefore, in order to do even a little, one has already to know a great deal and to know it well.

Ferdinand Foch

#13. A beaten general is disgraced forever.

Ferdinand Foch

#14. None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

Ferdinand Foch

#15. To think meant to give room for freedom of initiative, for the imponderable to win over the material, for will to demonstrate its power over circumstance.

Barbara W. Tuchman

#16. The unknown is the governing principle of war.

Ferdinand Foch

#17. It takes 15,000 casualties to train a major general.

Ferdinand Foch

#18. There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself.

Ferdinand Foch

#19. A war not only arises, but derives its nature , from the political ideas, the moral sentiments, and the international relations obtaining at the moment when it breaks out. This amounts to saying:;: try and know why and with the help of what you are going to act; then you will find out how to act.

Ferdinand Foch

#20. Every manoeuvre must be the development of a scheme; it must aim at a goal.

Ferdinand Foch

#21. The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.

Ferdinand Foch

#22. The fundamental qualities for good execution of a plan is first; intelligence; then discernment and judgment, which enable one to recognize the best method as to attain it; the singleness of purpose; and, lastly, ... stubborn will.

Ferdinand Foch

#23. When Marshal Foch heard of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles he observed with singular accuracy: This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years.

Winston S. Churchill

#24. A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.

Ferdinand Foch

#25. In tactics, action is the governing rule of war.

Ferdinand Foch

#26. I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country.

Ferdinand Foch

#27. Regulations are all very well for drill, but in the hour of danger they are no more use. You have to learn to think.

Ferdinand Foch

#28. Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.

Ferdinand Foch

#29. Einstein - the greatest Jew since Jesus. I have no doubt that Einstein's name will still be remembered and revered when Lloyd George, Foch and William Hohenzollern share with Charlie Chaplin that ineluctable oblivion which awaits the uncreative mind.

John B. S. Haldane

#30. One does simply what one can in order to apply what one knows .

Ferdinand Foch

#31. My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat, situation excellent. I attack.

Ferdinand Foch

#32. My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.

Ferdinand Foch