Duke of Wellington Quotes

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

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

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

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

Victory is the ability to fight five minutes longer than any other army in the world.

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

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

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'.

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

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

Educate men without religion and you make them clever devils.

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

Error is ever the sequence of haste.

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

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.

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

Yes, about ten minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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