Duke of Wellington famous quotes

Wise people learn when they can; fools learn when they must.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Education #Wise #People

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Life #Saws #Hats

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

#War #Soldier #Retreat

A great country can have no such thing as a little war.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Country #War #Littles

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Fear #War

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

#War

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

#War #Soldier #Facts

When one begins to turn in bed, it is time to get up.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Bed #Turns

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

#Mistake #Army #Men

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

#Courage #Enemy #Troops

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Business #Men #Order

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. ..
-- Duke of Wellington

#Order #Differences #Battle

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Believe #Heart #Loss

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

#Clever #Men #Cases

A great country cannot wage a little war.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Country #War #Littles

Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.
-- Duke of Wellington

#War #Battle #Next

There is nothing on earth so stupid as a gallant officer.
-- Duke of Wellington

#War #Stupid #Earth

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#War #Names #Enemy

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

#War #France

Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest.
-- Duke of Wellington

#War #History #Gentleman

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

#War #Men #Differences

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

#Art #War #Sides

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guess what was at the other side of the hill'.
-- Duke of Wellington

#War #Sides #Life Is

Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Inspirational #Mysterious #Unnecessary

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Friends #Hate #Believe

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

#Army #Earth #Scum

Extra interest signifies extra risk.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Risk #Usury #Interest

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

#Art #Engineering #Fool

Always make water when you can.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Water

If you believe that you will believe anything.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Believe #If You Believe

What masks are these uniforms to hide cowards!
-- Duke of Wellington

#Coward #Uniforms #Mask

Error is ever the sequence of haste.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Errors #Haste

Rashness is oftener the resort of cowardice than of courage.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Cowardice #Resorts #Rashness

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

#Prayer #Moral #Praying

Publish and be damned.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Classic #Publish

Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Battle #Next #Misery

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

#Crazy #Enemy #Care

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

#History #Soldier #Earth

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

#Imperfection

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Animal #Men #Born

I have seen their backs before.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Peace #War

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

#War #Men #Enemy

Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Horse #Doe #Born

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Peace #War #Battle

If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Memorial Day #War #One Day

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Mistake

Habit is ten times nature.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Habit

Educate men without religion and you make them clever devils.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Education #Teacher #Retirement

I acknowledge that I should not like to see again such loss as I sustained on the 23rd September, even if attended by such a gain.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Loss #Gains #September

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

#Battle #Fields #Eton

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.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Men #Talking #Ideas

When my journal appears, many statues must come down.
-- Duke of Wellington

#Legacy #Journal