Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - Wikiquote
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington ( 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852 ) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman. He rose to prominence during the Peninsular War and became a national hero in Britain after the Napoleonic Wars , during which he led the victorious Anglo-Allied forces at the Battle of Waterloo . He would later be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two separate occasions.
Contents
Quotations[ edit ]
It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.
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.
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."
Publish and be damned.
There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
The only thing I am afraid of is fear.
I believe I forgot to tell you I was made a Duke.
Postscript to a letter to his brother Henry Wellesley (22 May 1814), published in Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington (1862) by Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington
Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me.
At the Duchess of Richmond's ball (15 June 1815), as quoted in Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places (1896) by Archibald Forbes , quotes Captain Bowles account and citing the Letters of the First Earl of Malmesbury.
Up, Guards, and at them again.
Said at the Battle of Waterloo , as quoted in a letter from a Captain Batty of the Foot Guards (22 June 1815), often misquoted as "Up Guards and at 'em." Wellington himself, years later, declared that he did not know exactly what he had said on the occasion, and doubted that anyone did.
Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.
At the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), as quoted by Sir Walter Scott , in Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk (1815).
Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg!
Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!
Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Variant account:
Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington: By God, and have you!
Thomas Hardy , in The Dynasts, Pt. III Act VII, scene viii, portraying the incident.
Give me night or give me Blücher
Comment made at a crisis point during during Battle of Waterloo at about 5.45 pm on 18 June. The Military Maxims of Napoleon by Napoleon Bonaparte, David G. Chandler, William E. Cairnes , p. 143 Alternatively wording may have been "Night or the Prussians must come": quoted by David Howarth, page 162, "Waterloo: Day of Battle", ISBN=0-88365-273-0
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.
Letter from the field of Waterloo (June 1815), as quoted in Decisive Battles of the World (1899) by Edward Shepherd Creasy
It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. … By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.
Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo . Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."
Pour la canaille: Faut la mitraille.
Translation: "For the mob, use grapeshot ."
Quoted in "A portion of the journal kept by Thomas Raikes, esq., from 1831 to 1847 ; comprising reminiscences of social and political life in London and Paris during that period.", volume 2. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1858.
Also attributed to Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie by Thomas Carlyle
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. ..
Letter to John Croker (8 August 1815), as quoted in The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848) by Thomas Babington Macaulay , Volume I Chapter 5 ; and in The Waterloo Letters (1891) edited by H. T. Sibome
Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circumstances mentioned in General —'s account which did not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each important occurrence took place, or in what order.
Wellington's papers (17 August 1815), as quoted in The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848) by Thomas Babington Macaulay
Publish and be damned.
His response in 1824 to John Joseph Stockdale who threatened to publish anecdotes of Wellington and his mistress Harriette Wilson , as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford. This has commonly been recounted as a response made to Wilson herself, in response to a threat to publish her memoirs and his letters. This account of events seems to have started with Confessions of Julia Johnstone In Contradiction to the Fables of Harriette Wilson (1825), where she makes such an accusation, and states that his reply had been "write and be damned".
I am not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but I will at once declare that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any station in the Government of the country, I shall always feel it my duty to resist such measures when proposed by others.
Expressing his total opposition to demands for Parliamentary reform in November 1830. Cited in "The House of Lords: A handbook for Liberal speakers, writers and workers" (1910) by Liberal Publication Department, p. 19.
There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
In response to William Huskisson declaring there had been a mistake, and he had not intended to resign, after Wellington chose to interpret a letter to him detailing his obligation to vote for a measure opposed by him as a letter of resignation. As quoted in The Military and Political Life of Arthur Wellesley: Duke of Wellington (1852) by "A Citizen of the World", and in Wellingtoniana (1852), edited by John Timbs.
Who? Who?
Repeatedly asked in a loud voice in February 1852, during the introduction of the new cabinet of the Prime Minister the Earl of Derby , composed largely of political unknowns not recognized by the deaf and octogenarian Duke. The cabinet became known as the Who? Who? Ministry . As quoted in The Speeches of the Duke of Wellington in Parliament (1854) edited by John Gurwood and William Hazlitt , p. 272.
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."
Statement in conversation with John Crocker and Crocker's wife (4 September 1852), as quoted in The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.Dm F.R.S, Secretary of the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830 (1884), edited by Louis J. Jennings, Vol.III, p. 276.
Mistaken for me, is he? That's strange, for no one ever mistakes me for Mr. Jones.
In response to being told that the painter George Jones bore a strong resemblance to him, and that he was often mistaken for him, as quoted in My Autobiography and Reminiscences Vol. 1 (1887).
If you believe that you will believe anything.
In reply to a man who greeted him in the street with the words "Mr. Jones, I believe?", as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford .
I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.
When asked what he thought of the first Reformed Parliament, as quoted in Words on Wellington (1889) by Sir William Fraser , p. 12.
You must build your House of Parliament on the river: so... that the populace cannot exact their demands by sitting down round you.
As quoted in Words on Wellington (1889), by Sir William Fraser , p. 163.
I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.
As quoted in Collections and Recollections (1898) by G. W. E. Russell , ch.14.
We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France.
As quoted in Wellington and His Friends (1965) by Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington , p. 138, and in The Economist (16 June 2005)
I should have given more praise.
As quoted in A History of Warfare (1968) by Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein : "Sir Winston Churchill once told me of a reply made by the Duke of Wellington, in his last years, when a friend asked him: "If you had your life over again, is there any way in which you could have done better?" The old Duke replied: "Yes, I should have given more praise."
Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!
On the coming of the railways, in The Birth of the Modern (1991), by Paul Johnson. p. 993.
I have seen their backs before, madam.
This is attributed to Wellington as a statement to an unidentified woman at a reception in Vienna, who had apologized for the rudeness of some French officers who had turned their backs on him when he entered, as quoted in Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes (2000), edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard, p. 568
Variant: 'Tis of no matter, your Highness, I have seen their backs before.
As quoted in The Life and Letters of Lady Hester Stanhope (1914) edited by Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland
They wanted this iron fist to command them.
Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812 , in notes for 8 November 1840.
Disputed[ edit ]
As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, "I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do."
I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me.
Said to be his remarks on a draft of new troops sent to him in Spain (1809), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942) by H. L. Mencken , this quote is disputed, and may be derived from a comment made to Colonel Robert Torrens about some of his generals in a despatch (29 August 1810): "As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, "I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do."
[I don't] care a twopenny damn what [becomes] of the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte .
As quoted in The Times [London] (9 October 1944); this attribution probably originates in a letter by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (6 March 1849), in which he states "How they settle the matter I care not, as the duke says, one twopenny damn."
Misattributed[ edit ]
If a gentleman happens to be born in a stable, it does not follow that he should be called a horse.
As quoted in Genetic Studies in Joyce (1995) by David Hayman and Sam Slote. Though such remarks have often been quoted as Wellington's response on being called Irish, the earliest published sources yet found for similar comments are those about him attributed to an Irish politician:
The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell , in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials (1844), p. 93
No, he is not an Irishman. He was born in Ireland; but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.