William Tecumseh Sherman quotes from Wisdom-of-the-Wise.com

"War is hell."

"War is at its best barbarism."

"War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers."

"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will."

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

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

"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell."

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

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

"You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war."

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

"All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers."

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

"I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace."

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

"If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you."

"I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers."

"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."

"An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army."

"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."

"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it…"

Compiled by Thomas George
editor@Wisdom-of-the-Wise.com