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You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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Source, in full

Comments to Prof. David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary (24 December 1860), as quoted in The Civil War : A Book of Quotations (2004) by Robert Blaisdell. Also quoted in The Civil War: A Narrative (1986) by Shelby Foote, p. 58.

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War

More quotes by William Tecumseh Sherman

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

Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (1889)

I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.

Telegram (1884)

It will be a thousand years before Grant's character is fully appreciated. Grant is the greatest soldier of our time if not all time.

On Ulysses S. Grant (1885)

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

Letter to the City of Atlanta (1864)

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place.

Letter to R.M. Sawyer (1864)

All William Tecumseh Sherman quotes →

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Tecumseh Sherman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.