Top 60 William T. Sherman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Courage – a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”

— William T. Sherman

Featured in: Courage Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Military Quotes, Challenges Quotes, History Quotes

2. “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

4. “War is cruel and you cannot refine it.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

7. “The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.”

— William T. Sherman

8. “I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come-if alive.”

— William T. Sherman

9. “Hold the fort! I am coming!”

— William T. Sherman

10. “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations yet to come. I look upon war with horror.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

12. “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.”

— William T. Sherman

13. “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 T. Sherman

14. “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 T. Sherman

15. “He belonged to that army known as invincible in peace, invisible in war.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

18. “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 T. Sherman

19. “Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell!”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

22. “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 T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

24. “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 T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

26. “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

— William T. Sherman

27. “I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash-and it may be well that we become so hardened.”

— William T. Sherman

28. “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 T. Sherman

29. “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 T. Sherman

30. “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 T. Sherman

31. “You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing!”

— William T. Sherman

32. “The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak violence upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate.”

— William T. Sherman

33. “I intend to make Georgia howl.”

— William T. Sherman

34. “I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect an early success.”

— William T. Sherman

35. “You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm.”

— William T. Sherman

36. “War’s Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

38. “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.”

— William T. Sherman

39. “Never give reasons for what you think or do until you must. Maybe after a while, a better reason will pop into your head.”

— William T. Sherman

40. “At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

42. “It’s a disagreeable thing to be whipped.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

44. “Oh, it is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization.”

— William T. Sherman

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

— William T. Sherman

46. “But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.”

— William T. Sherman

47. “Many and many a person in Georgia asked me why we did not go to South Carolina; and, when I answered that we were en route for that State, the invariable reply was, – Well, if you will make those people feel the utmost severities of war, we will pardon you for your desolation of Georgia.”

— William T. Sherman

48. “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.”

— William T. Sherman

49. “Though I never ordered it, and never wished for it, I have never shed any tears over the event, because I believe that it hastened what we all fought for, the end of the war.”

— William T. Sherman

50. “War is at best barbarism.”

— William T. Sherman