Duke of Wellington quotes:

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

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.'

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

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

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

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.

Extra interest signifies extra risk.

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'.

Wise people learn when they can; fools learn when they must.

Always make water when you can.

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

I have got an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff.

Publish and be damned.

Rashness is oftener the resort of cowardice than of courage.

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

Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.

An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.

Publish and be dammed.

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

Educate men without religion and you make them clever devils.

There is nothing so dreadful as a great victory--except a great defeat.

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

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.

Always get over heavy ground as lightly as you can.

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.

When my journal appears, many statues must come down.

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

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

A great country cannot wage a little war.

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

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.

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

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

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

A great country can have no such thing as a little war.

When one begins to turn in bed, it is time to get up.

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

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

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

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

Error is ever the sequence of haste.

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

What masks are these uniforms to hide cowards!

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. ..

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

I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.

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

Believe me that every man you see in a military uniform is not a hero.

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.

There are no manifestos like cannon and musketry.

Today when a man gets married he gets a home, a housekeeper, a cook, a cheering squad and another paycheck. When a woman marries, she gets a boarder. To define it rudely but not ineptly, engineering is the art of doing that well with one dollar, which any bungler can do with two after a fashion.

Yes, about ten minutes.

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.

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.

Habit is ten times nature.

If you believe that you will believe anything.

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

Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest.

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

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.

I attribute my success on the battlefield to always being on the spot to see and do everything for myself

I see no reason to suppose these machines will ever force themselves into general use.

I am not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but I will at once declare that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any station in the Government of the country, I shall always feel it my duty to resist such measures when proposed by others.

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

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

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.

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

I have seen their backs before.

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.

Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circumstances mentioned in General -'s account which did not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each important occurrence took place, or in what order.

A great country ought not to make little wars.