Horatio Nelson Quotes (29 Quotes)


    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.

    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.

    Something must be left to chance nothing is sure in a sea fight beyond all others.

    When I came to explain to them the 'Nelson Touch', it was like an electric shock. Some shed tears, all approved - 'It was new - it was singular - it was simple'.

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


    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.

    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.

    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.

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

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

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


    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.

    Our country will, I believe, sooner forgive an officer for attacking an enemy than for letting it alone.


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

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

    Firstly you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own regarding 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 hate the devil.

    Nelson had decided well in advance of Trafalgar that he would abandon classic tactics and attack the horizontal French and Spanish line in two vertical columns, unleashing maximum chaos, his preferred environment. After that, it was every ship for itself. I think it will surprise and confound the enemy, ... They won't know what I am about. It will bring forward a pell-mell battle, and that is what I want.

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

    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.

    The defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleets lifted the very real threat of an invasion of Britain and it was greeted by the nation with huge relief,

    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.

    I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.

    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.

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

    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. - at the Battle of Copenhagen.

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



    More Horatio Nelson Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Enemy - Success - Duty - Time - Opinions - Man - War & Peace - Place - Defeats - Name - Weather - Business & Commerce - Kings & Queens - Honor - Service - Error & Mistake - Power - England - Devils - View All Horatio Nelson Quotations

    Related Authors


    Xenophon - Themistocles - Paul von Hindenburg - Lord Mountbatten - Kemal Ataturk - Karl Von Clausewitz - George C. Marshall - Daniel Waters - Chiang Kai-shek - Chester W. Nimitz


Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections