Horatio Nelson Quotes

When I came to explain to them the 'Nelson Touch', it was like an electric shock. Some shed tears, all approved - 'It was new - it was singular - it was simple!'.

Never break the neutrality of a port or place, but never consider as neutral any place from whence an attack is allowed to be made.

It is my turn now; and if I come back, it is yours.

Now I can do no more. We must trust to the Great Disposer of all events and the justice of our cause. I thank God for this opportunity of doing my duty.

A fleet of British ships at war are the best negotiators.

Treat every Frenchman as if he was the devil himself.

Thank God I have done my duty.

I am a Norfolk man and Glory in being so.

I have a right to be blind sometimes.

My greatest happiness is to serve my gracious King and Country and I am envious only of glory; for if it be a sin to covet glory I am the most offending soul alive.

There can be no place for self entirely

In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.

Firstly, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman, as you do the devil.

Close with a Frenchman, but out-maneuver a Russian.

I cannot, if I am in the field of glory, be kept out of sight: wherever there is anything to be done, there Providence is sure to direct my steps.

Let me alone: I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it's off the better.

In Sea affairs, nothing is impossible, and nothing is improbable.

Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.

First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.

The politics of courts are so mean that private people would be ashamed to act in the same way; all is trick and finesse, to which the common cause is sacrificed.

To do nothing was disgraceful; therefore I made use of my understanding.

I will dine nowhere without your consent although with my present feelings I might be trusted with fifty virgins naked in a dark room.

The business of the English commander-in-chief being first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

I cannot command winds and weather.

If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting.

I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.

England expects that every man will do his duty.

I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes... I really do not see the signal!

Buonaparte has often made his boast that our fleet would be worn out by keeping the sea and that his was kept in order and increasing by staying in port; but know he finds, I fancy, if Emperors hear the truth, that his fleet suffers more in a night than ours in one year.

My love is founded on esteem, the only foundation that can make the passion last.

You must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your King, and you must treat every Frenchman as if he were the Devil himself.

Hardy, I do believe they have done it at last... my backbone is shot through.

I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.

Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.

Our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.

Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon.

What the country needs is the annihilation of the enemy.

Something must be left to chance; nothing is certain in a sea fight

Desperate affairs require desperate measures.

My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.

I am of the opinion that the boldest measures are the safest.

Frigates are the eyes of a fleet.

I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before my time.

Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it.

Laurels grow in the Bay of Biscay, I hope a bed of them may be found in the Mediterranean.

The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.

No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or fleets under my command, into great danger, I should have long ago been out of the Service and never in the House of Peers.