1.
Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon.
Horatio Nelson
"Gentlemen, when the adversary is ensnared in an error we should not interfere prematurely."
2.
Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer and also that you cannot be a good officer without being a gentleman.
Horatio Nelson
3.
I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before my time.
Horatio Nelson
4.
Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.
Horatio Nelson
5.
England expects that every man will do his duty.
Horatio Nelson
6.
Desperate affairs require desperate measures.
Horatio Nelson
7.
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.
Horatio Nelson
8.
Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.
Horatio Nelson
9.
A fleet of British ships at war are the best negotiators.
Horatio Nelson
10.
I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.
Horatio Nelson
11.
In Sea affairs, nothing is impossible, and nothing is improbable.
Horatio Nelson
12.
The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.
Horatio Nelson
13.
I am of the opinion that the boldest measures are the safest.
Horatio Nelson
14.
I will dine nowhere without your consent although with my present feelings I might be trusted with fifty virgins naked in a dark room.
Horatio Nelson
15.
Close with a Frenchman, but out-maneuver a Russian.
Horatio Nelson
16.
Hardy, I do believe they have done it at last... my backbone is shot through.
Horatio Nelson
17.
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.
Horatio Nelson
18.
In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
Horatio Nelson
19.
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.
Horatio Nelson
20.
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.
Horatio Nelson
21.
Frigates are the eyes of a fleet.
Horatio Nelson
22.
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.
Horatio Nelson
23.
What the country needs is the annihilation of the enemy.
Horatio Nelson
24.
My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.
Horatio Nelson
25.
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.
Horatio Nelson
26.
Thank God I have done my duty.
Horatio Nelson
27.
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.
Horatio Nelson
28.
First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.
Horatio Nelson
29.
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.
Horatio Nelson
30.
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.
Horatio Nelson
31.
I am a Norfolk man and Glory in being so.
Horatio Nelson
32.
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.
Horatio Nelson
33.
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.
Horatio Nelson
34.
I cannot command winds and weather.
Horatio Nelson
35.
To do nothing was disgraceful; therefore I made use of my understanding.
Horatio Nelson
36.
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.
Horatio Nelson
37.
I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes... I really do not see the signal!
Horatio Nelson
38.
Something must be left to chance; nothing is certain in a sea fight
Horatio Nelson
39.
Treat every Frenchman as if he was the devil himself.
Horatio Nelson
40.
I have a right to be blind sometimes.
Horatio Nelson
41.
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.
Horatio Nelson
42.
Whoever gains the palm by merit, let him hold it.
Horatio Nelson
43.
There can be no place for self entirely
Horatio Nelson
44.
Our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.
Horatio Nelson
45.
I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.
Horatio Nelson
46.
A ship's a fool to fight a fort.
Horatio Nelson
47.
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.
Horatio Nelson
48.
Thank God I have done my duty. Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub. Kiss me, Hardy.
Horatio Nelson
49.
I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the
Commander of the Fleet but almost to every individual in it.
Horatio Nelson
50.
It is my turn now; and if I come back, it is yours.
Horatio Nelson