Civil War Quotes

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  I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Abraham Lincoln (1999). “The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations”, Gramercy

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• What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.

  Robert E. Lee

  Beautiful, Peace, War

  Robert E. Lee (2016). “The Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee (Abridged)”, p.206, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Letter to Henry L. Pierce and Others, 6 Apr. 1859

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• 

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

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Death, Military, War

  "The Civil War Generation". Book by Norman K. Risjord, p. 143, 2002.

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• A house divided against itself cannot stand.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Leadership, Inspirational Life, Twilight

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Change, Freedom, Father

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863

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• The enemy is here, and if we do not whip him, he will whip us.

  Robert E. Lee

  War, Enemy, Whips

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

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Talking, People

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

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• 

  The war...must go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks...unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence,and that, or extermination, we WILL have.

  Jefferson Davis

  War, Fall, Fighting

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• In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Congress And The President, Giving, Free Spirit

  Annual Message to Congress, 1 Dec. 1862

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• The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds prevailed... Therefore they sent their emissaries into the field to exploit the question of slavery and to open an abyss between the two sections of the Union.

  Otto von Bismarck

  War, Block, Europe

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  Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Leadership, Wisdom

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• As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Wisdom, Freedom, Humor

  "Definition of Democracy," ca. 1 Aug. 1858

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• My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Struggle, Slavery

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• It was not war, it was murder.

  Daniel Harvey Hill

  War, Murder

  Daniel Harvey Hill (1899). “North Carolina”

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• The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  Art, Peace, Military

  Statement to John Hill Brinton at the start of his Tennessee River Campaign, early 1862. "Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865". Book by John H. Brinton, p. 239, 1914.

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• As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal. We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Men, Despotism

  Letter to Joshua F. Speed, 24 Aug. 1855

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• 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 Tecumseh Sherman

  Military, Thinking, Names

  50 Copy quote

• All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

  Francois Fenelon

  Brother, War, Hippie

  110 Copy quote
• 

  I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.

  John Brown

  War, Thinking, Blood

  John Brown (1910). “The Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia”

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• The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Change, Past, Space

  Annual Message to Congress, 1 Dec. 1862

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• 

  There are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers , but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels.

  Frederick Douglass

  Real, War, Army

  "The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: The Civil War, 1861-1865".

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• Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Work, Independent, Labor Day

  Annual Message to Congress, 3 Dec. 1861

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• I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony.

  Robert E. Lee

  Country, War, Believe

  Robert E. Lee (1904). “Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee”, p.97, Lulu.com

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• We were lavish of blood in those days, and it was thought to be a grand thing to charge a battery or an earth-work lined with infantry.

  Daniel Harvey Hill

  War, Blood, Batteries

  "Bethel to Sharpsburg".

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