Heinz Guderian Quotes

Violence of action, as we call it in the Spec Ops community, will often change the odds in your favor.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

I mean, the job is Pearl Harbor. And you better not spends weeks and weeks and weeks trying to assign blame or deciding on a complete plan for fighting the whole war, you know, and letting a committee decide where the battleships should go and all of that. You better spring into action with the best people you have.

Hit hard, hit fast and hit often

If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.

There is no secrecy comparable to celerity.

In photography, you've got to be quick, quick, quick, quick...Like an animal and a prey.

The Ultimate decision, the fastest decision there is, is ACTION!

In the old days it would have been a relatively simple matter to have checked Hitler's territorial ambitions. All you'd have needed would have been the 1914 combination of Britain, France and Russia. Indeed, if such an alliance had acted decisively to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938, Hitler might even have been overthrown by his own military. But it was not to be.

In one of the decisive battles of World War I, disastrous reports poured into the headquarters of Marshal Foch, the commander of the Allied forces. The great general never lost heart. When things were at their worst, he drafted his famous order which is now in all textbooks of military strategy: "My center is giving way, my right is pushed back, my left is wavering. The situation is excellent. I shall attack!"

Thus, though I have heard of successful military operations that were clumsy but swift, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

Speed is the absolute essence of any form of combat

The FDA has formed a rapid response team.

I have always held the view that decisive force should be used in addressing a military conflict. The reason is simple: Why wouldn't you, if you could?

In war the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of the offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it.

There are twenty ways of going to a point, and one is the shortest; but set out at once on one. A man who has that presence of mind which can bring to him on the instant all he knows, is worth for action a dozen men who know as much, but can only bring it to light slowly.

When one has made a decision to kill a person, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about going at it in a long roundabout way. One's heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success. The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong.

We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge.

Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.

I always want to be as quick and decisive as I can be.

He's as quick as a hiccup.

We must make this campaign an exceedingly active one. Only thus can a weaker country cope with a stronger; it must make up in activity what it lacks in strength.

You must act with all energy. Mass searches. Execution for concealing arms.

Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching.

The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.