Horatio Nelson Quotes

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

Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer and also that you cannot be a good officer without being a gentleman.

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

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

England expects that every man will do his duty.

Desperate affairs require desperate measures.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Frigates are the eyes of a fleet.

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.

What the country needs is the annihilation of the enemy.

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

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.

Thank God I have done my duty.

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.

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

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.

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.

I am a Norfolk man and Glory in being so.

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

Had we taken ten sails, and let the eleventh to escape, being able to get at her, I could never have called it well done.

I cannot command winds and weather.

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

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.

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

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

Treat every Frenchman as if he was the devil himself.

I have a right to be blind sometimes.

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.

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

There can be no place for self entirely

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

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

A ship's a fool to fight a fort.

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.

Thank God I have done my duty. Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub. Kiss me, Hardy.

I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the Commander of the Fleet but almost to every individual in it.

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