Horatio Nelson Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

When I am without orders and unexpected occurrences arrive I shall always act as I think the honour and glory of my King and Country demand. But in case signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
A fleet of British ships of war are the best negotiators in Europe.

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

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
It is nonsense, Mr. Burke, to suppose I can live. My sufferings are great but they will soon be over.

Horatio Nelson
The Neapolitan officers did not lose much honour, for God knows they had not much to lose - but they lost all they had.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey.

Horatio Nelson
Laurels grow in the Bay of Biscay, I hope a bed of them may be found in the Mediterranean.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
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!

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

Horatio Nelson
This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long.

Horatio Nelson
The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.

Horatio Nelson
I will dine nowhere without your consent although with my present feelings I might be trusted with fifty virgins naked in a dark room.

Horatio Nelson
Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer and also that you cannot be a good officer without being a gentleman.

Horatio Nelson
My love is founded on esteem, the only foundation that can make the passion last.

Horatio Nelson
The politics of courts are so mean that private people would be ashamed to act in the same way; all is trick and finesse, to which the common cause is sacrificed.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first to bring an Enemy's 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, without separating, until the business is decided.

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

Horatio Nelson
... When he was on the eve of departure for one of his great expeditions the coachmaker said to him, "The carriage shall be at the door punctually at six o clock"; "A quarter before," said Nelson. "I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time and it has made a man of me."

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

Horatio Nelson
In case signals cannot be seen, or perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.

Horatio Nelson
Thank God, I have done my duty.

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

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson
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.

Horatio Nelson