Horatio Nelson Quotes

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

Our country will, I believe, sooner forgive an officer for attacking an enemy than for letting it alone.

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.

No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

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.

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.

My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal!

I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.

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.

I cannot command winds and weather.