Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Ferdinand Foch

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French military man Ferdinand Foch.

Last updated on September 18, 2024.

Ferdinand Foch was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not withstand. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

French - Military man | October 2, 1851 - March 20, 1929

Source: Wikipedia

Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

No study is possible on the battlefield.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

In whatever position you find yourself determine first your objective.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.

Ferdinand Foch

School is a building that has four walls-with tomorrow inside. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. There are many ways of going forward, but there is only one way of standing still. A lot of us would like to move mountains, but few of us are willing to practice on small hills. Doing your best is more important than being the best. Giant oak trees started out as little nuts. The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

Ferdinand Foch

The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last. That has never been the case and never will be. One of the great factors on the next war will be aircraft obviously. The potentialities of aircraft attack on a large scale are almost incalculable.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

All the same, the fundamental truths which govern that art are still unchangeable; just as the principles of mechanics must always govern architecture, whether the building be made of wood, stone, iron or concrete; just as the principles of harmony govern music of whatever kind. It is still necessary, then, to establish the principles of war.

Ferdinand Foch

It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.

Ferdinand Foch

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

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

Ferdinand Foch

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

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.

Ferdinand Foch

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

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

Ferdinand Foch

To be disciplined does not mean being silent, abstaining, or doing only what one thinks one may undertake without risk; it is not the art of eluding responsibility; it means acting in compliance with orders received, and therefore finding in one's own mind, by effort and reflection, the possibility to carry out such orders. It also means finding in one's own will the energy to face the risks involved in execution.

Ferdinand Foch

The unknown is the governing principle of war.

Ferdinand Foch

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.

Ferdinand Foch

Victory is a thing of the will.

Ferdinand Foch

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

In whatever position you find yourself, determine first your objective.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

In tactics, action is the governing rule of war.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

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

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.

Ferdinand Foch

This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.

Ferdinand Foch

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.

Ferdinand Foch

One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.

Ferdinand Foch

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

Ferdinand Foch

This absence of similarity among military questions naturally brings out the inability of memory to solve them; also the sterility of invariable forms, such as figures, geometrical drawings ( épures ), plans ( schémas ), etc. One only right solution imposes itself:;: namely, the application, varying according to circumstances, of fixed principles.

Ferdinand Foch

A beaten general is disgraced forever.

Ferdinand Foch

Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Ferdinand Foch

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