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Who really said it

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity

Written by George S. Patton 1885–1945 · U.S. Army general
Verified In copyright

Patton wrote it. The sentence appears word for word in his memoir War As I Knew It (Houghton Mifflin, 1947), in Part Three, “Reflections and Suggestions,” within his advice on issuing orders. We confirmed it in the book’s full text.

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

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Verified quote & credit

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity” George S. Patton, War As I Knew It (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947), Part Three, “Reflections and Suggestions.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Patton’s heirs (copyright 1947, renewed 1975); publisher Houghton Mifflin). 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, World War II. Theme: "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity". 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.

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Provenance

Where the line appears

Work
War As I Knew It
First published
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, November 1947 (posthumous)
Location
Part Three, “Reflections and Suggestions” — IV, “Command” — “Issuing Orders”
Text checked
Bantam reprint (1980), whose printing note says it contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition

Commanders must remember that the issuance of an order, or the devising of a plan, is only about 5 per cent of the responsibility of command. The other ninety-five per cent is to insure, by personal observation, or through the interposing of staff officers, that the order is carried out. Orders must be issued early enough to permit time to disseminate them.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. from “Issuing Orders”

The wording is the same as the popular version. Some quote collections, Wikiquote among them, put a comma after “what to do.” The text we checked has no comma there.

Full text of War As I Knew It (Bantam reprint), Internet Archive

How we traced it

  • The memoir’s full text has the sentence under “Issuing Orders,” in section IV, “Command,” of “Reflections and Suggestions” (Internet Archive full text ↗).
  • The copy’s printing history gives “Houghton Mifflin edition first published November 1947,” with “Copyright 1947” held by Patton’s children (copyright page ↗). A library record lists the first edition as Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1947 (Internet Archive catalog record ↗).
  • Wikiquote lists the line in its sourced quotations, citing War As I Knew It (1947), “Reflections and Suggestions” (Wikiquote ↗). We found no Quote Investigator article on this quote.
In copyright

War As I Knew It was first published in 1947, and its copyright page records a renewal in 1975. Under U.S. law that keeps the book under copyright. Quoting this one sentence with attribution is ordinary fair use, but the book itself is not in the public domain.

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

The popular paraphrase

The attribution to Patton is correct. A looser version of the line also circulates under his name, and that wording is not in the book.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” Paraphrase

This version was online by 2008. For example, a 9 April 2008 post on 37signals’ Signal v. Noise blog ↗ quotes it as Patton. Gracious Quotes says it has not found an original for this version and points to Patton’s actual wording in War As I Knew It (Gracious Quotes ↗).

What Patton actually wrote is “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” It appears in War As I Knew It (1947) (full text ↗).

Context

Why it mattered

The line is not a battlefield remark or a speech. It is a piece of written advice on command. Near the end of his memoir, in a part called “Reflections and Suggestions,” Patton set out lessons on soldiers, tactics and command. This sentence sits in his notes on issuing orders, alongside rules such as keeping Army orders to about a page and a half and issuing them early enough to be passed down.

Just before it, Patton says that issuing an order is “only about 5 per cent of the responsibility of command,” and that the rest is making sure the order is carried out. In that setting, the line separates what a commander must decide, the objective, from what he should leave to subordinates, the method.

Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Explore

Filed under

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

Leadership Creativity

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.

War As I Knew It, full textarchive.org

Full text of the Bantam reprint of the memoir, with the line under “Issuing Orders” and the 1947 printing history
War As I Knew It (1947), catalog recordarchive.org

Library record for the first edition: Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1947 (the scan is access-restricted)
George S. Patton on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line among sourced quotations, citing War As I Knew It (1947), “Reflections and Suggestions”
George S. Pattonen.wikipedia.org

Biography, including his birth in 1885 and death in Heidelberg in December 1945
George Patton quotes with sourcesgraciousquotes.com

Separates the book wording from the unsourced “surprise you with their results” paraphrase

The author

About George S. Patton

George S. Patton

1885–1945 · U.S. Army general, World War II

George Smith Patton was born in San Gabriel, California, on 11 November 1885. He commanded American armies in North Africa, Sicily and Western Europe during the Second World War. He was badly hurt in a car accident in Germany and died in Heidelberg on 21 December 1945. His memoir, War As I Knew It, was published after his death, in 1947.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

George S. Patton, War As I Knew It (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947), pt. 3, “Reflections and Suggestions,” sec. IV, “Command” (“Issuing Orders”).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/never-tell-people-how-to-do-things-tell-them-what-to-do-and/

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