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Quotes by Horatio Nelson

Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminister Abbey.
– Horatio Nelson
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.
– 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
England expects that every man will do his duty.
– Horatio Nelson
First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.
– Horatio Nelson
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.
– Horatio Nelson
Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon.
– Horatio Nelson
I cannot command winds and weather.
– Horatio Nelson
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.
– Horatio Nelson
I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.
– Horatio Nelson
I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time and it has made a man of me.
– Horatio Nelson
I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes... I really do not see the signal!
– 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
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
In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
– 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. - at the Battle of Copenhagen.
– 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
My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.
– 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
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.
– Horatio Nelson
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.
– 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
Our country will, I believe, sooner forgive an officer for attacking an enemy than for letting it alone.
– 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
The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle, but he dreads disgrace more.
– Horatio Nelson
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.
– 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
Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.
– Horatio Nelson
Desperate affairs require desperate remedies.
– Horatio Nelson