William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes

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• I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Tired, Blood

  184 Copy quote
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  War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Death, Military, War

  "The Civil War Generation". Book by Norman K. Risjord, p. 143, 2002.

  110 Copy quote
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  If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  America, Choices, Would Be

  133 Copy quote

• War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Military, War, Giving

  56 Copy quote

• The more Indians we can kill... the less will have to be killed the next war, for the more I see of these Indians, the more convinced I am that they all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Next, Species

  78 Copy quote

• We can make war so terrible and make them so sick of war that generations pass away before they again appeal to it.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, History, Sick

  86 Copy quote
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  Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Courage, Men, Perfect

  101 Copy quote

• We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children... during an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Children, Men, Soldier

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  76 Copy quote

• The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Determination, Powerful, War

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

  86 Copy quote

• I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Hate, Civil War, Rumor

  58 Copy quote

• We cannot change the hearts of the people of the South, but we can make war so terrible that they will realize the fact that however brave and gallant and devoted to their country still they are mortal and should exhaust all peaceful remedies before they fly to war.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Heart

  15 Copy quote

• The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation's capital reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Two, Political, Pelicans

  42 Copy quote

• I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Fierce, Tire

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1990). “Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman”, p.368, Library of America

  19 Copy quote

• Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Safe, Easy

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1990). “Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman”, p.898, Library of America

  64 Copy quote

• The only good Indian is a dead Indian

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Peace, War, Native American Indian

  19 Copy quote

• ...[We] must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Robbing, Bartering, Trading

  18 Copy quote

• This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Fighting, Army

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1875). “Memoirs of General William T. Sherman”, p.227

  27 Copy quote

• My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Wisdom, Humble, Pride

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1990). “Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman”, p.729, Library of America

  18 Copy quote

• If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, People, Answers

  United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Henry Thomas, John Pope, John Gray Foster (1866). “Supplemental report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War: in two volumes ; supplemental to Senate report no. 142, 38th Congress, 2d session”, p.190

  20 Copy quote

• I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Husband, Father, Tired

  Letter to James E. Yeatman on May 21, 1865. "Sherman: Merchant of Terror, Advocate of Peace". Book by Charles Edmund Vetter, p. 289, 1992.

  36 Copy quote

• I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don't like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don't solicit their opinions or votes.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Differences, People, Body

  23 Copy quote

• Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Crazy, History, Drunk

  70 Copy quote

• After all, I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Men, Thinking

  "The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest". Book by John Allan Wyeth, July 1, 1996.

  56 Copy quote
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  We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Important, Captains, Sergeants

  William Tecumseh Sherman, Brooks D. Simpson, Jean Vance Berlin (1999). “Sherman's Civil War: selected correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865”, The University of North Carolina Press

  37 Copy quote

• The young bloods of the South: sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard-players and sportsmen, men who never did any work and never will... They are splendid riders, first-rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Son, Player

  "Memoirs of General William T. Sherman".

  49 Copy quote

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