Duke of Wellington Quotes - Page 2

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

The history of a battle, is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance.

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

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.

Always make water when you can.

Troops would never be deficient in courage, if they could only know how deficient in it their enemies were.

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

Always get over heavy ground as lightly as you can.

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

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

The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

I have seen their backs before.

There are no manifestos like cannon and musketry.

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

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

A great country cannot wage a little war.

When my journal appears, many statues must come down.

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

Habit is ten times nature.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Rashness is oftener the resort of cowardice than of courage.