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date: 22 March 2025

Horatio, Lord Nelson 1758–1805
British admiral 

  1. You must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king: and…you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil.
    Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 3
  2. Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey.
    before the battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798; Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 5
  3. I have only one eye,—I have a right to be blind sometimes…I really do not see the signal!
    at the battle of Copenhagen, 1801; Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 7
  4. When I came to explain to them the ‘Nelson touch’, it was like an electric shock.
    letter to Lady Hamilton, 1 October 1805
  5. In case signals cannot be seen, or perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy.
    memorandum to commanders of ships before the battle of Trafalgar, 10 October 1805, in The Naval Chronicle vol. 14 (1805)
  6. May humanity after Victory be the predominant feature of the British Fleet.
    diary entry, on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805; Nicholas Harris Nicolas (ed.) Dispatches and Letters of…Nelson (1846) vol. 7, p. 139
  7. England expects that every man will do his duty.
    at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805; Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 9
  8. Thank God, I have done my duty.
    at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805; Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 9
  9. Kiss me, Hardy.
    at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805; Robert Southey Life of Nelson (1813) ch. 9