Wellington Quotes

• Twelve-piece cookware sets for ninety-nine bucks are routinely hawked on late-night TV - often by friends of mine. But with a mere five pieces, you can do whatever you like - slay the dragon and then cook its tenderloin in the style of the duke of Wellington, if you want to.

  Mario Batali

  Night, Ninety Nine, Dragons

  "An Introduction and Rallying Cry" by Mario Batali, www.esquire.com. August 24, 2011.

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• I am flushed and warm. I think I may be enormous, I am so stupidly happy, My wellingtons Squelching and squelching through the beautiful red.

  Sylvia Plath

  Beautiful, Thinking, Red

  Sylvia Plath (2015). “Collected Poems”, p.204, Faber & Faber

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• I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Lunch, Soldier, Matter

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• If we strike a line to the N.W. from Sydney to Wellington Valley, we shall find that little change takes place in the geological features of the country.

  Charles Sturt

  Change, Country, Valleys

  Charles Sturt (1834). “Two expeditions into the interior of Southern Australia: during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831 with observations on ... New South Wales”, p.34

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• Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never would.

  Susanna Clarke

  Men, Gentleman, Magic

  Susanna Clarke (2009). “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell”, p.389, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• We started out as boss and player, and Wellington was almost like my father.

  Frank Gifford

  Father, Player, Boss

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• Students sometimes turn up at my course and they look a bit like they're going to Bali with only Wellingtons and a map, and they never leave their hotel room because they didn't think to bring a bikini. I'm full of bizarre analogies like that.

  Louise Wilson

  Thinking, Rooms, Bikinis

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• Anyone who clings to the historically untrue-and thoroughly immoral-doctrine that, 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Thinking, Issues, Never Settle

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Starship Troopers”, p.27, Penguin

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• It's rather an exhilarating feeling. It's 6 or 7 when you get up and go out into the fields wearing your Wellingtons or high boots. You know that at this very hour half the nation does the same thing, which gives you, with the benefit of hindsight, a satisfaction in doing those things, too, a knowledge, a sense of the nation. I was a city boy until then.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Boys, Cities, Exhilarating Feeling

  "Joseph Brodsky's Art of Darkness". www.washingtonpost.com. October 23, 1987.

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• I'll tell you what you can expect from an Irishman named Wellington whose father was a bookmaker. You can expect that anything he says or writes may be repeated aloud in your own home in front of your children. You can believe he was taught to love and respect all mankind, but to fear no man.

  Wellington Mara

  Children, Father, Believe

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• I try to paint from life, but I had such a miserable experience with Bonaparte, who wouldn't sit still and kept mumbling about catching a cold and something incoherent about Wellington , so I finally decided to work from photos.

  Roman Genn

  Trying, Portraiture, Cold

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• The fame of a battlefield grows with its years; Napoleon storming the Bridge of Lodi, and Wellington surveying the towers of Salamanca, affect us with fainter emotions than Brutus reading in his tent at Philippi, or Richard bearing down with the English chivalry upon the white armies of Saladin.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Reading, Army, Years

  Robert Aris WILLMOTT (1851). “Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature”, p.12

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• Was it possible that Napoleon should win the battle of Waterloo? We answer, No! Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Blucher? No! Because of God! For Bonaparte to conquer at Waterloo was not the law of the nineteenth century. It was time that this vast man should fall. He had been impeached before the Infinite! He had vexed God! Waterloo was not a battle. It was the change of front of the Universe!

  Victor Hugo

  God, Fall, Winning

  "The Hamilton Speaker (The Battle of Waterloo)". Book edited by Oliver Ernesto Branch, 1878.

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• It isnt only fictional heroes to whom toast means home and comfort. It is related of the Duke of Wellington - I believe by Lord Ellesmere - that when he landed at Dover in 1814, after six years absence from England, the first order he gave at the Ship Inn was for an unlimited supply of buttered toast.

  Elizabeth David

  Believe, Hero, Mean

  Elizabeth David (2011). “A Taste of the Sun”, p.68, Penguin UK

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• Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? That Wellington won the battle of Waterloo? There are various degrees and dimensions of success in making statements: the statements fit the facts always more or less loosely, in different ways on different occasions for different intents and purposes.

  J. L. Austin

  Truth, Eggs, Battle

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• I'm staunch. If you are lucky enough to be able to play for your country, it seems to make you even prouder of your roots and origins, and to me that's Wellington.

  Murray Mexted

  Country, Roots, Play

  "The Wellingtonian interview: Murray Mexted". Interview with Joseph Romanos, www.stuff.co.nz. July 1, 2009.

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• One of the highlights of my career was playing first class rugby for my province, which was Wellington. Another highlight was playing first class rugby with my brothers. Not many brothers get to do that. I can't explain what it felt like to be out there, playing with them. It was a great feeling.

  Filo Tiatia

  Brother, Class, Careers

  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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• When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte,
  As every child can tell,
  The House of Peers, throughout the war,
  Did nothing in particular,
  And did it very well

  W. S. Gilbert

  Children, War, Government

  'Iolanthe' (1882) act 2

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• I miss the city Bret and I live in, Wellington. It's a good place to be creative, in the same way New York is.

  Jemaine Clement

  New York, Cities, Creative

  "'Conchords': HBO's new 'mascots' for New Zealand". Interview with Christine Fenno, ew.com. June 14, 2007.

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• I had a strong sudden instinct that I must be alone. I didn’t want to see any people at all. I had seen so many people all my life -- I was an average mixer, but more than average in a tendency to identify myself, my ideas, my destiny, with those of all classes that came in contact with. I was always saving or being saved -- in a single morning I would go through the emotions ascribable to Wellington at Waterloo. I lived in a world of inscrutable hostiles and inalienable friends and supporters.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Strong, Morning, Destiny

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (1996). “The Jazz Age: Essays”, p.58, New Directions Publishing

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• The Duke of Wellington brought to the post of first minister immortal fame,-a quality of success which would almost seem to include all others.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Success, Discipline, Political

  Benjamin Disraeli (1845). “Sybil, Or, The Two Nations”, p.26

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• I am made for autumn. Summer and I have a fickle relationship, but everything about autumn is perfect to me. Woolly jumpers, Wellington boot, scarves, thin first, then thick, socks. The low slanting light, the crisp mornings, the chill in my fingers, those last warm sunny days before the rain and the wind. Her moody hues and subdued palate punctuated every now and again by a brilliant orange, scarlet or copper goodbye. She is my true love.

  Alys Fowler

  Summer, Goodbye, Morning

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• You remember the Duke of Wellington was talking of the Battle of Waterloo when he said that it was not that the British soldiers were braver than the French soldiers. It was just that they were brave five minutes longer. And in our struggles sometimes that's all it takes-to be brave five minutes longer, to try just a little harder, to not give up on ourselves when everything seems to beg for our defeat.

  Paul H. Dunn

  Giving Up, Struggle, Talking

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• The poor old Duke [of Wellington]! What shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.

  Daniel O'Connell

  Horse, Men, Doe

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• If Wellington epitomizes the English gentleman, Eisenhower epitomizes the natural American gentleman.

  John Keegan

  Hair, Gentleman, Natural

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