William Tecumseh Sherman

“War is at its best barbarism.”

“War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.”

“There will soon come an armed contest between capital and labor. They will oppose each other, not with words and arguments, but with shot and shell, gun-powder and cannon. The better classes are tired of the insane howling of the lower strata and they mean to stop them.”

“A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets.”

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”

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

“I will accept no commission that would tend to create a rivalry with Grant. I want him to hold what he has earned and got. I have all the rank I want.”

“If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir.”

“War is hell.”

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

“מאוחר אותו לילה מצא אותו שרמן, חברו־למחזור בווסט פוינט (West Point), תחת עץ דולף, צווארון סגינו מורם עד אוזניו. כמו מפקד־המשנה המבוהל לפניו, גם שרמן בא לדבר על נסיגה, אבל 'הבהק פתאומי של תבונה' הדריכו לנהוג אחרת. 'ובכן, גרנט,' אמר, 'השטן בעצמו עבר עלינו היום, נכון?' גרנט שאף את עשן הסיגר, הרמץ המתלקח האיר את קלסטרו הנאה, הכחוש, הנמרץ. 'כן,' אמר. 'כן. אבל מחר נדפוק אותם.' וכך עשה. גדול מצביאי מלחמת־האזרחים האמריקנית החל עולה מאלמוניותו.”

“לא אקבל את מועמדות המפלגה, ואם אבחר, לא אשרת בתפקיד”

“להניח את האויב על קרניה של הדילמה.”

“המלחמה היא גיהנום.”

“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

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

“You may as well say, 'That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.”

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

“The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.”

“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.”