Horatio Nelson Quotes

Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake we must not interrupt him too soon.

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.

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

Desperate affairs require desperate measures.

England expects that every man will do his duty.

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

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

I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before my time.

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.

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