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During the Peninsula War, I heard a Portuguese general address his troops before a battle with the words, "Remember men, you are Portuguese!"

— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Wellington's reply when asked, late in his life, what was the most inane remark he had ever heard, as quoted in Journals of Alec Guinness (February 1998) by Alec Guinness
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

More by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

Despatch (1815)

An untoward event. (Threatening to disturb the balance of power.)

I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.

When asked what he thought of the first Reformed Parliament (1832)

Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!

Take care what you are about, for unless you base all this on religion, you are only making so many clever devils.

The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.

Saying. Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.

To know when to retreat; and to dare to do it.

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Topics

War

More quotes by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)

They wanted this iron fist to command them.

Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)

I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.

Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)

My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.

Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.