“An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.”
“Our army is composed of the scum of the earth – the mere scum of the earth.”
“The whole art of war consists of guessing at what is on the other side of the hill.”
“The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.”
“As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, ‘I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do.’”
“Educate men without religion and you make of them but clever devils.”
“I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me.”
“Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious.”
“I used to say of Napoleon that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.”
“Habit is ten times nature.”
“Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.”
“Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.”
“Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.”
“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 ‘guess what was at the other side of the hill’.”
“It is not the business of generals to shoot one another.”
“Publish and be dammed.”
“Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.”
“The only thing I am afraid of is fear.”
“The Lord’s prayer contains the sum total of religion and morals.”
“When one turns over in bed, it is time to turn out.”
“When my journal appears, many statues must come down.”
“I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say, your professional poets, I mean there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.”
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