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

William Tecumseh Sherman

More information about this quote

Topic

Horrors of war War American Civil War

Author

William Tecumseh Sherman

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Occupation

General Soldier

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sherman, William Tecumseh. Letter to Mayor James M. Calhoun and E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells. 12 Sept. 1864.

Current Citation

Sherman, William Tecumseh. Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865. University of North Carolina Press, 1999, ch. 12.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by William Tecumseh Sherman about horrors of war: “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War…”
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A quote by William Tecumseh Sherman about horrors of war: “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War…”
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A quote by William Tecumseh Sherman about horrors of war: “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1860s

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg Address

Read the Gettsyburg Address at the Library of Congress website
More information about this quote
Topic
American Civil War American politics
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Source
Gettysburg Address
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1863 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Gettysburg Address." At the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. 19 Nov. 1863, Gettysburg, PA, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote about War

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Dulce et Decorum Est

Read Dulce et Decorum Est at Poetry Foundation
More information about this quote
Topic
Horrors of war War

Author

Wilfred Owen
Source
Dulce et Decorum Est
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1920 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." Poems by Wilfred Owen. Chatto & Windus, 1920.

Current Citation

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen. Random House UK, 2018.

Another quote from 1864

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Victor Hugo

More information about this quote
Topic
Limits of language

Author

Victor Hugo
Source
William Shakespeare
Language
French
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Paris: Lacroix & Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1864, pt. 1, bk. 2, ch. 4.