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
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington: Quotes about men
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was British soldier and statesman. Explore interesting quotes on men.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington:
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“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:
It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
“I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me.”
Said to be his remarks on a draft of new troops sent to him in Spain (1809), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942) by H. L. Mencken, this quote is disputed, and may be derived from a comment made to Colonel Robert Torrens about some of his generals in a despatch (29 August 1810): "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."
Disputed