Waterloo Quotes

Napoleon Bonaparte: Cross the river. Tomorrow we will dry our boots in Brussels.

Michel Ney: God willing, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: God? God has nothing to do with it.

King Louis XVIII: I know you loved this man.

Michel Ney: I did, once. But I promise you, that I will bring him back to Paris in an iron cage.

[exits]

King Louis XVIII: How they exaggerate, these soldiers, "In an iron cage"? Nobody asked for that.

Lord Uxbridge: [clears throat] Sir.

Duke of Wellington: [removing his copy of The Times from over his face] Ah, Uxbridge.

Lord Uxbridge: As I am second-in-command and in case anything should happen to you, what are your plans?

Duke of Wellington: [brightly] To beat the French.

[goes back to sleep, replacing the newspaper over his head]

Duke of Wellington: The whole line will advance.

Lord Uxbridge: In which direction your grace?

Duke of Wellington: Why, straight ahead to be sure.

Lord Uxbridge: By God, Sir. I've lost my leg.

Duke of Wellington: By God, Sir. So you have.

[the Prussians are preparing to attack]

Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher: Raise high the black flags, my children. No prisoners. No pity. I will shoot any man I see with pity in him.

[Historical quote]

Duke of Wellington: [referring to his army] I don't know what they'll do to the enemy; but, by God, they frighten me.

[Observing the advance of the Gordon Highlanders]

Napoleon Bonaparte: Has Wellington nothing to offer me but these Amazons?

[before the battle starts, the British troops are singing a mocking song about Napoleon]

William De Lancey: Shall I shut them up, Sir?

Duke of Wellington: No, no, indulge it . Anything that wastes time is good. Indulge it. Normally I don't like cheering, but there's always a time to cut cards with the Devil.

Duke of Wellington: Bylandt's's brigade has broken. Plug the gap, if you please.

General Sir Thomas Picton: Gordon, get your bastards up on to the crest. I'll bring up the rest of the brigade.

Lord Gordon: Don't hurry yourself, Pic. My lads will hold them, aye, 'til you come.

General Sir Thomas Picton: Get forward, damn your eyes!

Sir William Ponsonby: My Father poor fellow, was killed by the French. Never should have happened

Lord Uxbridge: Really?

Sir William Ponsonby: Yes, his horse got caught in a bog and the brute just gave up. Seven damn lancers had him like a tiger in a pit. Bad luck, eh, Uxbridge?

Lord Uxbridge: Damn bad luck!

Sarah: Mama, Iggy has promised to bring me a cuirassier's helmet to use as a work basket - without blood in it, Mama.

Duchess of Richmond: And one for me, young man - *with* the blood.

Sir William Ponsonby: And where do you plan to stick your Frenchman, Hay?

Lord Richard Hay: I thought under the right arm, sir.

Sarah: See? He has it all planned.

General Sir Thomas Picton: When you meet a cuirassier beam-to-beam, you'll be lucky if you bring away your life with you, never mind his helmet. Boy, you'll learn the art of fighting from the French.

[Napoleon is watching the charge of the Scots Greys]

Napoleon: Those men on grey horses are terrifying.

Marshal Soult: They are the noblest cavalry in Europe; and the worst led.

Napoleon: That may be; that may be, but we will match them with our lancers.

[the French artillery has begun firing on the English positions]

Duke of Wellington: Well, that opens the ball.

Duke of Wellington: They're coming on in the same old style.

General Sir Thomas Picton: Well, then we shall have to meet them in the same old style.

[referring to the English troops]

Duchess of Richmond: They're the salt of England, Arthur.

Duke of Wellington: Scum. Nothing but beggars and scoundrels, all of them. Gin is the spirit of their patriotism.

Duchess of Richmond: Yet you expect them to die for you?

Duke of Wellington: Um-hum.

Duchess of Richmond: Out of duty?

Duke of Wellington: Um-hum.

Duchess of Richmond: I doubt if even Bonaparte could draw men to him by duty.

Duke of Wellington: Oh, Boney's not a gentleman.

Duchess of Richmond: Arthur! What an Englishman you are.

Duke of Wellington: On the field of battle his hat is worth fifty thousand men; but he is not a gentleman.

Michel Ney: Wellington's on the run! I caught him at Quatre Bras! He's retreating!

Napoleon Bonaparte: If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here?

Michel Ney: But, Sire...

Napoleon Bonaparte: If Wellington's retreating, what are you doing here? Why didn't you follow him? Why didn't you pursue?

Michel Ney: [Raises voice] where are the reinforcements you promised me?

Napoleon Bonaparte: [shouting] Don't you dare criticize me! Don't you dare! Don't you see if Wellington's free to choose his ground then everything I've won in this campaign you've lost!

Napoleon Bonaparte: [watching the advance of troops in the distance] Prussians.

[Ney aims his own telescope]

Napoleon Bonaparte: That is not necessary, that is not necessary. They're Prussians, but as far as the army's concerned, they're on the moon. Understand?

Gen. Drouot: [wounded on his horse] The Prussians are in the woods! Blucher is in the woods!

Napoleon Bonaparte: I made one mistake in my life; I should have burned Berlin.

Mulholland: [the Old Guard is surrounded by British cavalry] Brave Frenchmen! You have done all that the honor of war demands; His Grace, the Duke of Wellington, invites you to save your lives! Will you surrender?

Vicomte Pierre Cambronne: MERDE!

[Cavalry pulls back exposing ranks of artillery]

Napoleon Bonaparte: Well they've done it! The whole of Europe has declared war against me! Not against France, but against me.

Le Bedoyere: They dignify you sire by making you a Nation!

Napoleon Bonaparte: [laughing] Dignify? Dignify? They deny me the decency of law! They make it legal that any clown can kill me.

Michel Ney: Well we've fought with mud in our boots before!

Napoleon Bonaparte: Yes well, I'll discuss peace over Wellington's dead body, that's my peace table!

Napoleon Bonaparte: Le Bedoyere, do you have any children?

Le Bedoyere: Yes, sire; one son, very young,no taller than your boot.

Napoleon Bonaparte: And if he were with you, would you want him with you here today?

Le Bedoyere: Yes, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Yes, why?

Le Bedoyere: So he could see you, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: See me? You know, I have a son. I'd give anything in the world to see him. I'd give my heart, I'd give my life, but not here. I wouldn't want him to witness this battle here today.

Napoleon Bonaparte: When I am dead and gone what will the world say of me?

Le Bedoyere: They'll say that you extended the limits of glory, sire.

Napoleon Bonaparte: The limits of glory'; is that all I have to leave to my son, the 'limits of glory'?

William De Lancey: He's commiting Reille's Division now sir, he intends to turn us, on the right!

Duke of Wellington: What the master does and what he intends are as different as white knight to black bishop.

William De Lancey: We could quickly move the 95th down, sir.

Duke of Wellington: I do not intend to run around like a wet hen! There'll be plenty of time, sir.

[On Wellington's refusal to move]

Napoleon Bonaparte: [thinks to himself] This Englishman has two qualities I admire: caution, and above all, courage

[speaks up]

Napoleon Bonaparte: He hasn't moved, he's nailed himself to his ridge. Now's the time to move all the heavy artillery against Picton.

Gen. August Gneisenau: [to Blucher on Wellington's request to move in the direction of Waterloo] If Wellington runs to the coast, none of us will make it home to Berlin. I do not trust the English, nonetheless because I have served you before, sir...

Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher: [Disgusted with Gneisenau] I am seventy-two and a proud soldier. This sword is steel! I am too old to break it.

Gen. August Gneisenau: Very well, I have ordered the retreat to Wavre. You may still co-operate with the Wellington, but God help us if he does not stand.

Sir William Ponsonby: Before we go, Uxbridge...

[proffering snuff powder]

Lord Uxbridge: [snorts] Ah...

[sneezes]

Lord Uxbridge: Savage stuff, Ponsonby!

Sir William Ponsonby: You don't see its like any more. My father left us a hundredweight, down to the last ounce. An old Jew in Alexandria had the blend.

Lord Uxbridge: Blend?

[Ponsonby laughs]

[Bonaparte is facing down Louis XVIII's artillery, unarmed]

Napoleon Bonaparte: Soldiers of the fifth. Do you recognise me?

[pause]

Napoleon Bonaparte: If you want to kill your Emperor? Here I am.

Duchess of Richmond: ...this year, soldiers are the fashion.

Duke of Wellington: [ironically] Where would society be without my boys?

Lord Gordon: Good beans, Wellington!

Duke of Wellington: If there is anything in this world about which I know positively nothing, it is agriculture.

Sarah: General Picton doesn't know how to walk in a ballroom.

Duke of Wellington: But he is very good when he is dancing with the French.

Mulholland: We're doing murder, your grace.

Duke of Wellington: I hope to God... that I've fought my last battle.

[as the British cavalry charge across the battlefield]

Lord Uxbridge: Sound the recall!

[a trumpeter blows the signal on his trumpet. The cavalry either ignore or can't hear it, continuing to charge towards the French cannon. The trumpeter keeps sounding]

Duke of Wellington: [irritably] Stop that useless noise!

[kinder]

Duke of Wellington: You'll hurt yourself.