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Who really said it

Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning

Attributed to George S. Patton 1885–1945 · U.S. Army general
Attributed In copyright

Widely credited to Patton. The oldest printing found is Porter B. Williamson’s 1979 memoir I Remember General Patton’s Principles, which recalls it as one of Patton’s teachings. That is a staff officer’s memory, not Patton’s own words in any speech, letter or diary, and Wikiquote lists the line as disputed.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning” attributed to George S. Patton, as recalled by Porter B. Williamson, I Remember General Patton’s Principles (1979)

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Porter B. Williamson or his estate; Management and Systems Consultants (1979) and Simon and Schuster (1982 edition)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of George S. Patton — U.S. Army general, commander of the Seventh and Third Armies in World War II. Theme: "Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line comes from

Work
I Remember General Patton’s Principles
Author
Porter B. Williamson, Patton’s staff judge advocate, writing from memory
Published
Tucson, Ariz.: Management and Systems Consultants, 1979; reissued as Patton’s Principles (Simon and Schuster, 1982)
Chapter
“Never fight a battle when nothing is gained by winning”

I remember Gen. Patton explaining, “So many battles are fought in war and in civilian life, …” […] “Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.” Nothing would be gained by merely getting revenge against the enemy. Excerpt, from snippets

Put together from Internet Archive full-text search snippets of the scanned 1979 book. The book is lend-only, so the full page could not be read and the gap marked […] has not been checked. The book shows the line in quotation marks in a chapter about Patton’s teaching. Williamson’s 1988 follow-up uses different wording: “…fight a battle if you do not gain anything when you win.”

I Remember General Patton's Principles (1979) at the Internet Archive

How the line traveled

  • 1979: Porter B. Williamson’s memoir I Remember General Patton’s Principles (Tucson) prints “Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning” in a chapter recalling Patton’s teaching (Internet Archive full-text result ↗).
  • 1982: Simon and Schuster reissues the book as Patton’s Principles: A Handbook for Managers Who Mean It! with the same sentence (full-text result ↗). From there it spreads into quotation books such as William Safire and Leonard Safir’s Leadership (1990).
  • 2009–2011: DK reference books credit the same words to Erwin Rommel’s Infanterie greift an (1937), for example World War II: The Definitive Visual Guide (full-text result ↗).
  • Today: Wikiquote lists the line under “Disputed” on both its Patton ↗ and Rommel ↗ pages and notes the conflicting citations.
In copyright

The wording first appears in print in Williamson’s 1979 memoir I Remember General Patton’s Principles. That is a post-1931 work by a named author, so it is treated as in copyright in the U.S. No text written by Patton himself that contains this line has been found. A short quotation like this one is normally fine to use with attribution.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Patton, Rommel, or a staff officer’s memory?

The same sentence is credited to two opposing World War II generals. Neither man is known to have written it down himself.

George S. Patton Second-hand

The Patton credit goes back to his former staff judge advocate, Porter B. Williamson, whose 1979 memoir recalls it as a Patton principle (1979 text ↗). It is a memory written down years after the fact. No speech, letter or diary entry by Patton has been found with this wording.

Erwin Rommel Unsupported

DK’s World War II visual history (2009) and Timelines of History (2011) credit the line to Rommel’s Infanterie greift an (1937). Wikiquote’s note gives page numbers in those DK books but none in Rommel’s own book (Wikiquote: Rommel ↗). The Rommel printings this check found are all far later than Williamson’s 1979 book.

“Never fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning” Variant

Later quotation collections often start with “Never.” Williamson’s own 1988 book General Patton’s Principles for Life and Leadership words it as “…fight a battle if you do not gain anything when you win” (1988 text ↗).

Best evidence: the line comes from Porter B. Williamson’s 1979 memory of Patton’s teaching, not from anything Patton wrote. Wikiquote lists it as disputed ↗.

Context

Why the source matters

Williamson’s books are collections of Patton’s teachings as Williamson remembered them, set down after Patton died in 1945. Williamson admits this himself. In another passage of the 1979 book he writes that the words he gives “are not exactly what Gen. Patton said,” because Patton used profanity.

That makes the Patton credit plausible and traceable to someone who worked closely with him. It still leaves the exact wording as Williamson’s, and it was through Williamson’s management-handbook reissue that the line reached business and self-help quotation books.

These words are not exactly what Gen. Patton said.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: George S. Pattonen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line under Disputed, with the conflicting Patton and Rommel citations.
Wikiquote: Erwin Rommelen.wikiquote.org

The same line under Disputed on Rommel's page, credited to Infanterie greift an only through later DK books.
I Remember General Patton's Principles (1979)archive.org

Scanned copy of Williamson's original Tucson edition, the oldest printing of the line found.
Patton's Principles (1982)archive.org

The Simon and Schuster reissue that most later quotation books cite.
Leadership, Safire & Safir (1990)archive.org

A widely used quotation anthology that repeats the Patton credit.
George S. Patton biographyen.wikipedia.org

Patton's life dates and his 1942 command of the I Armored Corps and Desert Training Center.

The author

About George S. Patton

George S. Patton

1885–1945 · U.S. Army general, commander of the Seventh and Third Armies in World War II

George Smith Patton Jr. was a U.S. Army general who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean and then the Third Army in France and Germany during World War II. In 1942 he led the I Armored Corps and set up the Desert Training Center in California. Porter B. Williamson served on his staff there and later wrote down Patton’s sayings from memory.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Oldest printing found

Attributed to George S. Patton in Porter B. Williamson, I Remember General Patton’s Principles (Tucson, Ariz.: Management and Systems Consultants, 1979), chapter “Never fight a battle when nothing is gained by winning”; reissued as Patton’s Principles: A Handbook for Managers Who Mean It! (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/dont-fight-a-battle-if-you-dont-gain-anything-by-winning/

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