35 quotes
Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.
Let me alone, I have yet my legs left, and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and get his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it is off the better.
Success, I trust — indeed have little doubt — will crown our zealous and well-meant endeavours: if not, our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.
I had rather suffer death than alarm Mrs. Freemantle, by letting her see me in this state, when I can give her no tidings whatever of her husband.
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.
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.
The lives of all are in the hands of Him who knows best whether to preserve it or no, and to His will do I resign myself. My character and good name are in my own keeping.
This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long.
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
I am Lord Nelson. See, here's my fin.
Fear? I never saw fear. What is it? It never came near me.
Thank God, I have done my duty.
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub.
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
It is nonsense, Mr. Burke, to suppose I can live. My sufferings are great but they will soon be over.
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
There are three things, young gentlemen, which you are constantly to bear in mind. Firstly, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting 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 do the devil.
Nelson's advice to his Midshipmen (1793)
To leave off action"? Well, damn me if I do! You know, Foley, I have only one eye,— I have a right to be blind sometimes . . . I really do not see the signal!