Duke of Wellington Quotes

There is nothing so dreadful as a great victory--except a great defeat.

When one begins to turn in bed, it is time to get up.

God deliver me from my friends! I'll take care of my enemies myself.

Call on a business man only at business times, and on business; transact your business, and go about your business, in order to give him time to finish his business.

It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.

I mistrust the judgment of every man in a case in which his own wished are concerned

I see no reason to suppose these machines will ever force themselves into general use.

A great country cannot wage a little war.

We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France.

Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.

Educate men without religion and you make them clever devils.

The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes; ours is composed of the scum of the earth - the mere scum of the earth. It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards.

I am not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but I will at once declare that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any station in the Government of the country, I shall always feel it my duty to resist such measures when proposed by others.

Wise people learn when they can; fools learn when they must.

Yes, about ten minutes.

The British soldiers are fellows who have all enlisted for drink. That is the plain fact - they have all enlisted for drink.

When other Generals make mistakes their armies are beaten; when I get into a hole, my men pull me out of it.

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.

The only thing that they can be relied on to do is to gallop too far and too fast.

I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say, your professional poets, I mean there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.

My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest.

Always get over heavy ground as lightly as you can.

To define it rudely but not ineptly, engineering is the art of doing for 10 shillings what any fool can do for a pound

As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, 'I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do.

It is not the business of generals to shoot one another.

As a member of the Protestant British squirearchy ruling Ireland, he was touchy about his Irish origins. When in later life an enthusiastic Gael commended him as a famous Irishman, he replied "A man can be born in a stable, and yet not be an animal.

Extra interest signifies extra risk.

I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.

During the Peninsula War, I heard a Portuguese general address his troops before a battle with the words, "Remember men, you are Portuguese!"

There are no manifestos like cannon and musketry.

Believe me that every man you see in a military uniform is not a hero.

Error is ever the sequence of haste.

There is nothing on earth so stupid as a gallant officer.

I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.

The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

I have got an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff.

Habit is ten times nature.

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

You must build your House of Parliament on the river: so... that the populace cannot exact their demands by sitting down round you.

The hardest thing of all for a soldier is to retreat.

The scum of the earth... but what fine soldiers we have made them.

The Lord's prayer contains the sum total of religion and morals.

My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.

I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.

Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me.

Our army is composed of the scum of the earth - the mere scum of the earth.