If a man does his best, what else is there?

Patton’s line distills a hard, soldierly ethic: moral and professional judgment should begin with effort. If someone has genuinely applied all available skill, discipline, and will, then the remaining outcomes—luck, enemy action, friction, and uncertainty—are not fully controllable and should not be grounds for shame. The remark also functions as a rebuke to perfectionism and to armchair criticism: it shifts attention from results alone to the standard of wholehearted performance. In a military context, it reinforces cohesion and resilience by valuing duty and maximum exertion even when plans fail.