William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The only good Indian is a dead Indian

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

I found so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use - the purchase of arms and ammunition... Of course, I have respected all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but in these new cases (swarms of Jews), I have stopped it.