Ferdinand Foch Quotes
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This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.
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The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.
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The distribution of troops devoted to the defence of a place includes a garrison, an occupying force, numerically as weak as possible; a reserve as strong as possible, designed for counterattacking and for providing itself, at the moment it goes into action, with a security service which will guard it from any possible surprise.
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My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
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Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.
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Les avions sont des jouets intéressants mais n'ont aucune utilité militaire
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The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.
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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.
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The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious.
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Against what should fire be opened? Against the obstacles which may delay the march of infantry. The first obstacle is the enemy gun. It will be the first objective assigned to artillery masses.
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I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country.
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It takes 15,000 casualties to train a major general.
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To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre, this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.
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(perhaps a different and better translation of the same remark) quoted by Barbara Tuchman in The Guns of August (Random House, 1962)
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One does simply what one can in order to apply what one knows.
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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.
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No study is possible on the battlefield.
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Far from being a sum of distinct and partial results, victory is the consequence of efforts, some of which are victorious while others appear to be fruitless, which nevertheless all aim at a common goal, all drive at a common result: namely, at a decision, a conclusion which alone can provide victory.
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None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.
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In tactics, action is the governing rule of war.
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In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective.
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What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all of the armies of Europe.
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In war there are none but particular cases; everything has there an individual nature; nothing ever repeats itself. In the first place, the data of a military problem are but seldom certain; they are never final. Everything is in a constant state of change and reshaping.
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An army is to a chief what a sword is to a soldier. It is only worth anything in so far as it receives from him a certain impulsion (direction and vigour).