Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

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 Peninsula War and became a national hero in England 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.

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I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me.
- On a draft of Irish troops sent to him in Spain, 1809

Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington:"By God, and have you!"
- Hardy, The Dynasts, Pt.III.VII.viii
  - Said at the Battle of Waterloo, after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
- Dispatch from the field of Waterloo (June 1815)

Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.
- Sir W. Scott, Paul's Letters (1815)
- At Waterloo

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
- Wellingtoniana (1832)

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 done if I had not been there.
- Creevey Papers, ch. x, p. 236
- On the Battle of Waterloo

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'.
- Croker Papers (1885), vol.iii, p. 276

I believe I forgot to tell you I was made a Duke.
- Postscript to a letter to his nephew Henry Wellesley, 22 May 1814

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" (Liberal Publication Department, 1910), p. 19.

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.
- Sir William Fraser, Words on Wellington (1889), p. 12
- On seeing the first Reformed Parliament

You must build your House of Parliament on the river: so... that the populace cannot exact their demands by sitting down round you.
- Sir William Fraser, Words on Wellington (1889), p. 163

We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France. [1]

Because a man is born in a stable that does not make him a horse.
- Longford, Wellington--The Years of the Sword, p.129
- Wellington's thought on his being born in Ireland.

I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.
- G. W. E. Russell's Collections and Recollections,, ch.14

Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!
- Paul Johnson, The Birth of the Modern (1991), p.993
- On the coming of the railroads

Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me
- Archibald Forbes Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places, (Project Gutenberg), quotes Captain Bowles account and cites the Letters of the First Earl of Malmesbury
- At the Duchess of Richmond's ball

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. ... 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 Papers, August 8, and 17, 1815.^[1]The Waterloo Letters edited by H.T. Sibome, (in letter to John Croker, a Waterloo historian).^[2]

I used to say of him [Napoleon] that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.
- November 2, 1831.

Ours is composed of the scum of the earth—the mere scum of the earth.
- November 4, 1831.
- Speaking about the British Army

My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.
- November 2, 1835.

It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.
- September 18, 1836.

They wanted this iron fist to command them.
- November 8, 1840.
- Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the war with America

'Tis of no matter, your Highness, I have seen their backs before.
- To King Louis XVIII at a Spring 1814 ball. The King had apologised for the rudeness of the Marshals of France, who had all previously been defeated on the battlefield by the Duke and turned their backs on him when he entered.

If you believe that you will believe anything.
- In reply to a man who greeted him in a street with the words "Mr Jones, I believe?"

Night or the Prussians will come.
- Said during the thick of the Battle of Waterloo

Ours is composed of the scum of the Earth — the mere scum of the Earth. But by God; look at what I have made them into!
- On the British Army Infantry

People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling - all stuff - no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children - some for minor offences - many more for drink.
- On the makeup of the British Army.

I will line every road from the border of Spain to the streets of Paris with provosts if that is what it takes to keep this army in check.
- Attributed to the Arthur Wellesley during the Peninsular Campaign, speaking on the matter of dicipline in the British army. Quote is believed by some to be apocryphal and that it was most likely have spoken by one of his staff.

Publish and be damned.
- Allegedly written when the courtesan Hariette Wilson threatened to publish her memoirs and his letters

Up Guards and at them again.
- Often mis-quoted as "Up Guards and at 'em." Said at the Battle of Waterloo

Who? Who?
- Repeatedly shouted during the introduction of a new Cabinet, composed largely of political unknowns not recognized by the deaf and octogenarian Duke. The cabinet became known as the Who? Who? Ministry.

The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton
- Attributed to the Duke, but probably apocryphal.
- Chambers Reference Online cites Chambers 21st Century Dictionary,: "... Quoted in Count Charles de Montalembert, De l'Avenir politique de l'Angleterre (1856), ch.10."