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

  178 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

  122 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.

  101 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

  71 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

  45 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

  70 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

  91 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.

  80 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

  78 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

  50 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

  36 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

  15 Copy quote

• The only good Indian is a dead Indian

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Peace, War, Native American Indian

  15 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

  16 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

  57 Copy quote

• You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Blood

  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.

  74 Copy quote

• In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Fighting

  16 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

  63 Copy quote

• To those who would submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Government, Law, Punishment

  54 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

  10 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".

  48 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

  15 Copy quote

• The way to success is strategically along the way of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Expectations, Lines, Way

  10 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

  34 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.

  30 Copy quote

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