Quote from Patton: “Rommel, You Magnificent Bastard. I Read Your Book!”

Paul Tudor Jones as quoted in the Foreword to The Alchemy of Finance:

In Patton, my favorite scene is when U.S. General George S. Patton has just spent weeks studying the writing of his German adversary Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and is crushing him in an epic tank battle in Tunisia. Patton, sensing victory as he peers onto the battle field from his command post, growls, “Rommel, you magnificent bastard. I read your book!”

Every day I say the same thing to myself.

The Erwin Rommel book in question is most likely to be Infantry Attacks, published in the middle of the 30’s as ‘Infanterie greift an’. It discusses the Stoßtruppen tactics used in the first world war. Reading as many books as possible on a subject, especially by your competitor, may just give you the advantage you need to win.

Filed under Psychology