Arthur Wellesley (d. 1852)

Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg! Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!

Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), 2004

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

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, 1998

If you believe that you will believe anything.

In reply to a man who greeted him in the street with the words "Mr. Jones, I believe?", as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford., 1969

I should have given more praise.

As quoted in A History of Warfare (1968) by Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein: "Sir Winston Churchill once told me of a reply made by the Duke of Wellington, in his last years, when a friend asked him: "If you had your life over again, is there any way in which you could have done better?" The old Duke replied: "Yes, I should have given more praise.", 1968

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

As quoted in Wellington and His Friends (1965) by Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, p. 138, and in The Economist (16 June 2005), 1965

It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. 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 been done if I had not been there.

Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing.", 1903

I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.

As quoted in Collections and Recollections (1898) by G. W. E. Russell, ch.14., 1898

Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me.

At the Duchess of Richmond's ball (15 June 1815), as quoted in Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places (1896) by Archibald Forbes, quotes Captain Bowles account and citing the Letters of the First Earl of Malmesbury., 1896

You must build your House of Parliament on the river: so... that the populace cannot exact their demands by sitting down round you.

As quoted in Words on Wellington (1889), by Sir William Fraser, p. 163., 1889

Mistaken for me, is he? That's strange, for no one ever mistakes me for Mr. Jones.

In response to being told that the painter George Jones bore a strong resemblance to him, and that he was often mistaken for him, as quoted in My Autobiography and Reminiscences Vol. 1 (1887)., 1887

They wanted this iron fist to command them.

Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812, in notes for 8 November 1840., 1886

The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

Referring to a cholera outbreak in London, 1831, 1886

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

On Napoleon Bonaparte, in notes for 2 November 1831; later, in the notes for 18 September 1836, he is quoted as saying:, 1886

Circumstances over which I have no control.

Phrase said to have first been used by Wellington, as quoted in notes for 18 September 1836, 1886

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

Notes for 2 November 1835., 1886

The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes; ours is composed of the scum of the earth — the mere scum of the earth. It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards.

Speaking about soldiers in the British Army, 4 November 1813, 1886

'''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."

Remarks to John Wilson Croker and Croker's wife (4 September 1852), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. III (1884), p. 276, 1884

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

In response to William Huskisson declaring there had been a mistake, and he had not intended to resign, after Wellington chose to interpret a letter to him detailing his obligation to vote for a measure opposed by him as a letter of resignation. As quoted in The Military and Political Life of Arthur Wellesley: Duke of Wellington (1852) by "A Citizen of the World", and in Wellingtoniana (1852), edited by John Timbs, 1852

Pour la canaille: Faut la mitraille.

Translation: "For the mob, use grapeshot.", 1831

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

At the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), as quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk (1815)., 1815