Bernard Law Montgomery Quotations

Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.

I was well beaten myself, and I am better for it.

If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and we lose it quickly.

Discipline strengthens the mind so that it becomes impervious to the corroding influence of fear.

Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is no good.

Air power is indivisible. If you split it up into compartments, you merely pull it to pieces and destroy its greatest asset - its flexibility.

If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and lose it quickly.

Let no man surrender so long as he is unwounded and can fight.

A Marine should be sworn to the patient endurance of hardships, like the ancient knights; and it is not the least of these necessary hardships to have to serve with sailors.

The harder the fighting and the longer the war, the more the infantry, and in fact all the arms, lean on the gunners.

Im my profession you have to mystify the enemy.

To us is given the honor of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history and in the better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride of our doings.

There is such an equality among them that the officers have no authority. The privates are all generals, but not soldiers.

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: “Do not march on Moscow”. Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: “Do not go fighting with your land armies in China”. It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: 'Do not march on Moscow'... Rule 2 is: Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.

The commander must decide how he will fight the battle before it begins. He must then decide who he will use the military effort at his disposal to force the battle to swing the way he wishes it to go; he must make the enemy dance to his tune from the beginning and not vice versa.

Why does soldiers leave the protection of his trench hole in the ground and go forward in the face of shot and shell? It is because of the leader who is in front of him and his comrades who are around him. Comradeship makes a man feel warm and courageous when all his instincts tend to make him cold and afraid.

As God once said, and I think rightly...

My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.

The first duty of a leader is opti­mism. How does your sub­or­di­nate feel after meet­ing with you? Does he feel uplifted? If not, you are not a leader.

The Sappers really need no tribute from me; their reward lies in the glory of their achievement. The more science intervenes in warfare, the more will be the need for engineers in field armies; in the late war there were never enough Sappers at any time. Their special tasks involved the upkeep and repair of communications; roads, bridges, railways, canals, mine sweeping. The Sappers rose to great heights in World War II and their contribution to victory was beyond all calculations.