A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.

This maxim is widely attributed to General George S. Patton in the context of his World War II command style, which emphasized speed, initiative, and relentless offensive action. Patton repeatedly urged subordinates to decide and act quickly under battlefield uncertainty rather than wait for complete information or an idealized plan. The line is commonly circulated in leadership and military decision-making discussions as a distillation of his belief that momentum and aggressiveness can be decisive advantages in combat. However, pinning the sentence to a specific dated speech, memo, or diary entry is difficult, and it often appears in later compilations and quotation collections without a precise primary citation.

The saying argues that timeliness and decisive action often matter more than exhaustive optimization. Patton’s point is not that planning is useless, but that in dynamic, high-stakes situations—warfare, crisis management, competitive business—conditions change faster than planners can perfect their designs. Acting “now” can seize initiative, create momentum, and force the environment to respond to you, whereas waiting for perfection can mean missed opportunities and loss of control. The word “violently” underscores intensity and commitment: execution should be energetic and coordinated, not tentative. As a leadership principle, it favors bias toward action while accepting manageable risk and imperfection.