Mike Province, founder and president of The Patton Society http://www.pattonhq.com/ calls this an urban legend and in the Texas A&M Battalion (2 October 2006) http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2006/10/02/Aggielife/Traditionally.Speaking-2319058.shtml?sourcedomain=www.thebatt.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com is quoted as saying "I've gotten e-mails and questions regarding that quote for several years... People will use it with Texas Aggies, The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute and even Clemson. All of these schools want to be linked to Patton... Anything is possible... I honestly don't believe he said it, because I've heard too many people say that he said it about their school. But if anyone out there can find proof that he said it, I'd love to hear about it and get it out there." If any school has a claim, it is the Virginia Military Institute; Patton's grandfather, grand-uncles, and his father all were VMI graduates. Patton himself spent a year at VMI before going to West Point. VMI has many George Patton relics donated by his family in its museum. Please also note that the photo of Patton as a cadet has him wearing a VMI coatee and cap.
Misattributed
“Give me a Japanese division armed with bamboo spears and I'll wipe out the entire Russian Far Eastern Army.”
Quoted in "Until They Eat Stones" - Page 254 - by Russell Brines - 1944
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Sadao Araki 19
Japanese general 1877–1966Related quotes
“If we have a thousand bamboo spears, there's nothing to worry about a war with the Soviet Union.”
Quoted in "Sugamo Diary" - Page 30 - by Yoshio Kodama - 1960
“Russians can give you arms, but only the United States can give you a solution.”
[Fradkin, Hillel, Libby, Lewis, September/October 2012, Learning from Sadat: The Dividends of American Resolve, http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/learning-sadat-dividends-american-resolve, World Affairs, Washington, D.C., World Affairs Institute, October 9, 2018]
“I'll fling a spear myself and leave the rest to Zeus.”
XVII. 515 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
As quoted in "Ingmar Bergman Confides in Students" http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/08/movies/ingmar-bergman-confides-in-students.html New York Times, May 7, 1981.
August 1941, from "The World at War" - Page 129 - by Mark Arnold-Forster - World War, 1939-1945 - 1981
Sourced Encyclopedia of the Third Reich Louis L. Snyder
“Hanajima, my spear! Bring me my spear!”
Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 21
Quoted in "Shanghai's Undeclared War" - by George C. Bruce - 1937 - Page 54.
Mohamad Sabu (2018) cited in " Mat Sabu: Trilateral maritime patrols have reduced crime in Sulu sea https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/419130/mat-sabu-trilateral-maritime-patrols-have-reduced-crime-sulu-sea" on New Straits Times, 8 October 2018