Horatio Nelson
56 quotes
Biography
"I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor."
"Fear? I never saw fear. What is it? It never came near me."
"Those gobblers [the French]?- I detest them."
"There are three things, young gentlemen, which you are constantly to bear in mind. 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."
"Success, I trust — indeed have little doubt — will crown our zealous and well-meant endeavours: if not, our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone."
"The lives of all are in the hands of Him who knows best whether to preserve it or no, and to His will do I resign myself. My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied, and, if anything happens to me recollect death is a debt we must all pay, and whether now or in a few years hence can be but of little consequence."
"<!-- Had all my actions, my dearest Fanny, been gazetted, not one fortnight would have passed during the whole war without a letter from me: one day or other I will have a long Gazette to myself; I feel that such an opportunity will be given me. --> I cannot, if I am in the field for glory, be kept out of sight. Probably my services may be forgotten by the great, by the time I get Home; but my mind will not forget, nor cease to feel, a degree of consolation and of applause superior to undeserved rewards. Wherever there is anything to be done, there Providence is sure to direct my steps. Credit must be given me in spite of envy. <!-- Even the French respect me: their Minister at Genoa, in answering a Note of mine, when returning some wearing apparel that had been taken, said, ‘Your Nation, Sir, and mine, are made to show examples of generosity, as well as of valour, to all the people of the earth. -->"
"I had rather suffer death than alarm Mrs. Freemantle, by letting her see me in this state, when I can give her no tidings whatever of her husband."
"Let me alone, I have yet my legs left, and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and get his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it is off the better."
"First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can."
"Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey."
"The Neapolitan officers did not lose much honour, for God knows they had not much to lose - but they lost all they had."
"I am myself a Norfolk man, and I glory in being so."
"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."
"It is warm work; and this day may be the last to any of us at a moment. But mark you! I would not be elsewhere for thousands."
"To leave off action"? Well, damn me if I do! You know, Foley, I have only one eye,— I have a right to be blind sometimes . . . I really do not see the signal!"
"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."
"There is in the handling of these Transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the Navy of Great Britain."
"Never mind manoeuvres always go at them."
"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."
"Victory or Westminster Abbey."
"In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them."
"Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be."
"The measure may be thought bold, but I am of the opinion the boldest are the safest."
"Bonaparte has often made his boast, that our fleet would be worn out by keeping the sea, that his was kept in order, and increasing, by staying in port; but he now finds, I fancy, if emperors hear truth, that his fleet suffers more in a night, than ours in one year; however, thank God, the Toulon fleet is got in order again, and I hear the troops embarked, and I hope they will come out to sea in fine weather."