Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Quotes

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

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.

Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!

Mistaken for me, is he? That's strange, for no one ever mistakes me for Mr. Jones.

[I don't] care a twopenny damn what [becomes] of the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg! Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!

I should have given more praise.

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

I have seen their backs before, madam.

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

Who will attack first tomorrow? I or Bonaparte?
-Bonaparte.
-Well, Bonaparte has not given me any idea of his projects, and as my plans will depend on his, how can you expect to tell me what mine are?

There is not a Moslem heart in Asia, from Pekin to Constantinople, which will not vibrate, when reflecting upon the fact that the European ladies, and other females attached to the troops at Cabul, were made over to the tender mercies of the Moslem chief, who had with his own hand murdered the representative of the British Government at the Court of the Sovereign of Afghanistan... It is impossible to impress upon you too strongly the notion of the importance of the restoration of our reputation in the East. Our enemies in France, the United States, and wherever found, are now rejoicing in our disasters and degradation. You will teach them that their triumph is premature.

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 "guessing what was at the other side of the hill."

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.

Buonaparte's whole life, civil, political, and military, was a fraud. There was not a transaction, great or small, in which lying and fraud were not introduced.