Tecumseh's Quotes & Sayings

The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation's capital reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish. — William Tecumseh Sherman

We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Sell a country?! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? — Tecumseh

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. — Tecumseh

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 Tecumseh Sherman

It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth-right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. — William Tecumseh Sherman

He belonged to that army known as invincible in peace, invisible in war. — William Tecumseh Sherman

[We] must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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

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 Tecumseh Sherman

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

War is at best barbarism. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Let us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country, our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers. — Tecumseh

War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace. — William Tecumseh Sherman

War is hell." - William Tecumseh Sherman "Sherman was totally my bitch." - War — Larissa Ione

Since my residence at Tippecanoe, we have endeavored to level all distinctions, to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischiefs are done. It is they who sell the land to the Americans. — Tecumseh

The way, and the only way, to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each. — Tecumseh

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. — Tecumseh

An army to be useful must be a unit, and out of this has grown the saying, attributed to Napoleon, but doubtless spoken before the days of Alexander, that an army with an inefficient commander was better than one with two able heads. — William Tecumseh Sherman

If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir. — William Tecumseh Sherman

I am Shawnee! I am a warrior! My forefathers were warriors. From them I took only my birth into this world. From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own destiny! And of that I might make the destiny of my red people, of our nation, as great as I conceive to in my mind, when I think of Weshemoneto, who rules this universe! — Tecumseh

War is cruel and you cannot refine it. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak violence upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate. — William Tecumseh Sherman

In our Country ... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

The Great Spirit made all things. He gave the white people a home beyond the great waters. He supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to his red children; and he gave them strength and courage to defend them. — Tecumseh

You, too, will be driven away from your native land and ancient domains as leaves are driven before the wintry storms. Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws, in false security and delusive hopes. Our broad domains are fast escaping from our grasp. — Tecumseh

With education symmetrical and true we will take the dead mass buried by slavery's hand and touch them to life. This beauteous angel, which has always done its work for those on earth, will roll away the stone from the tomb where is buried a race, and my people will come forth to their glory and the amazement of the world. — William Tecumseh Vernon

My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother, and on her bosom I will recline. — Tecumseh

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. — Tecumseh

You may as well say, 'That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The young bloods of the South; sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard players and sportsmen, men who never did any work and never will. War suits them.. They are splendid riders, first rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace. — William Tecumseh Sherman

From my tribe I take nothing, I am the maker of my own fortune. — Tecumseh

If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve. — William Tecumseh Sherman

We can make war so terrible and make them so sick of war that generations pass away before they again appeal to it. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Do not despise or hate your neighbor because he has been a success; take care of your own case. — William Tecumseh Vernon

War is at its best barbarism. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The more Indians we can kill ... the less will have to be killed the next war, for the more I see of these Indians, the more convinced I am that they all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Hold the fort! I am coming! — William Tecumseh Sherman

Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell! — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

The Great Spirit is angry with all men that tell lies. — Tecumseh

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. — Tecumseh

Grant stood by me when I was crazy ... — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

I see every chance of a long, confused and disorganizing civil war, and I feel no desire to take a hand therein. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief and noted orator, tried to unite the Indians against the white invasion: The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is for all the Redmen to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each. That no part has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers - those who want all and will not do with less. Angered when fellow Indians were induced to cede a great tract of land to the United States government, Tecumseh organized in 1811 an Indian gathering of five thousand, on the bank of the Tallapoosa River in Alabama, and told them: Let the white race perish. They seize your land; they corrupt your women, they trample on the ashes of your dead! Back whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven. — Howard Zinn

Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours. — Tecumseh

Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!' — Tecumseh

The white usurpation in our common country must be stopped, or we, its rightful owners, be forever destroyed and wiped out as a race of people. I am now at the head of many warriors backed by the strong arm of English soldiers. Choctaws and Chickasaws, you have too long borne with grievous usurpation inflicted by the arrogant Americans. — Tecumseh

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. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The way to success is strategically along the way of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. — Tecumseh

The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because the Indians had it first. — Tecumseh

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 Tecumseh Sherman

Unless you are as smart as Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, savvy as a half-blind Calcutta bootblack, tough as General William Tecumseh Sherman, rich as the Queen of England, emotionally resilient as a Red Sox fan, and as generally able to take care of yourself as the average nuclear missile submarine commander, you should never have been allowed near this document. — Neal Stephenson

I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come-if alive. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Oh, it is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Brothers, we must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other's battles; and more than all, we must love the Great Spirit. — Tecumseh

After all, I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side. — William Tecumseh Sherman

War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine ... War is hell. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Bosh. I find a rival - but no, I won't flatter myself that Tecumseh Fox would consider himself a rival of Dol Bonner - I find an eminent detective in your apartment, and that alone is enough, without adding that he is concealed in your bedroom while I am discussing my business with you ... — Rex Stout

When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness. — Tecumseh

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 Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong. — Tecumseh

You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! — William Tecumseh Sherman

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. — Tecumseh

When Jesus Christ came upon the Earth, you killed Him. The son of your own God. And only after He was dead did you worship Him and start killing those who would not. — Tecumseh

No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers ... Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? The way, the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided. We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game, and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum, trinkets, and a grave. — Tecumseh

Every year, our white intruders become more greedy, exacting, oppressive, and overbearing. Every year, contentions spring up between them and our people, and when blood is shed, we have to make atonement, whether right or wrong, at the cost of the lives of our greatest chiefs and the yielding up of large tracts of our lands. — Tecumseh

War is Hell you can NOT refine it! — William Tecumseh Sherman

I intend to make Georgia howl. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

To secure the safety of the navigation of the Mississippi River I would slay millions. On that point I am not only insane, but mad ... I think I see one or two quick blows that will astonish the natives of the South and will convince them that, though to stand behind a big cottonwood and shoot at a passing boat is good sport and safe, it may still reach and kill their friends and families hundreds of miles off. For every bullet shot at a steamboat, I would shoot a thousand 30-pounder Parrots into even helpless towns on Red, Ouachita, Yazoo, or wherever a boat can float or soldier march. — William Tecumseh Sherman

There's many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory but it is all hell. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

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 Tecumseh Sherman

I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them, I take my only existence. — Tecumseh

I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy. — William Tecumseh Sherman

I am the maker of my own fortune, and Oh! that I could make that of my Red People, and of my country, as great as the conceptions of my mind, when I think of the spirit that rules the universe. I would not then come to Governor Harrison to ask him to tear up the treaty, and to obliterate the landmark, but I would say to him, "Sir, you have the liberty to return to your own country." — Tecumseh

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

I have made myself what I am. And I would that I could make the red people as great as the conceptions of my own mind, when I think of the Great Spirit that rules over us all. — Tecumseh

A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Tecumseh recognized that standing alone is never the way. There is strength in numbers. — Summer Lane

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 Tecumseh Sherman

To those who would submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust. — William Tecumseh Sherman

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 ... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? — William Tecumseh Sherman

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster. — William Tecumseh Sherman

I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting - its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The whole island was exactly what a kid growing up in some trailer park
say some dump like Tecumseh Lake, Georgia
would dream about. This kid would turn out all the lights in the trailer while her mom was at work. She'd lie down flat on her back, on the matted-down orange shag carpet in the living room. The carpet smelling like somebody stepped in a dog pile. The orange melted black in spots from cigarette burns. The ceiling was water-stained. she'd fold her arms across her chest, and she could picture life in this kind of place. It would be that time
late at night
when your ears reach out for any sound. When you can see more with your eyes closed than open. The fish skeleton. From the first time she held a crayon, that's what she'd draw. — Chuck Palahniuk

I found so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use - the purchase of arms and ammunition ... Of course, I have respected all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but in these new cases (swarms of Jews), I have stopped it. — William Tecumseh Sherman

The only good Indian is a dead Indian — William Tecumseh Sherman

Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it. — William Tecumseh Sherman

Wars are not all evil, they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed. — William Tecumseh Sherman