Native American Quotes - Page 5

• He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone.

  Seneca the Younger

  American Indian, All Alone, Should

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• The Wise Man believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astire on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool-his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Wise, Attitude, Believe

  62 Copy quote

• We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?

  Chief Seattle

  Air, Water, Sparkle

  7 Copy quote

• Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.

  Black Elk

  Grandfather, Wish, Faces

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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• Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike-brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all.

  Chief Joseph

  Country, Brother, Father

  "Why use of Native American nicknames is an obvious affront" by Steve Wulf, www.espn.com. September 3, 2014.

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• The first peace, which is the most important,
  is that which comes within the souls of people
  when they realize their relationship,
  their oneness with the universe and all its powers,
  and when they realize that at the center of the universe
  dwells the Great Spirit,
  and that this center is really everywhere,
  it is within each of us.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Relationship, Wisdom

  "The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux". Book by Black Elk and Joseph Epes Brown, 1953.

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• At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.

  Black Elk

  Peace, Oneness, Soul

  164 Copy quote

• All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth.

  Chief Seattle

  Children, Web Of Life, Earth

  Chief Seattle, “This we know”

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• Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.

  Chief Joseph

  Travel, Men, American Indian

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• We do not want riches, we want peace and love.

  Red Cloud

  Love, Peace, Want

  60 Copy quote
• 

  Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

  Chief Joseph

  Life, Strength, Teacher

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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  One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.

  Crazy Horse

  Journey, Hiking, People

  "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". Book by Dee Brown. Chapter 12, 1970.

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• My art speaks and will continue to speak, transcending barriers of nationality, language and other forces that may be divisive, fortifying the greatness of the spirit that has always been the foundation of the Ojibwa people.

  Norval Morrisseau

  Art, Greatness, People

  Norval Morrisseau (2005). “Norval Morrisseau: Return to the House of Invention”

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• The Clan Mothers ran everything and had the last word. I think that's the answer.

  Floyd Red Crow Westerman

  Mother, Thinking, Answers

  72 Copy quote

• Weakness and strength are necessary for balance. No one or nothing is only weak or only strong. But some of us overlook our weaknesses, and even deny that we have them. That can be dangerous, because denying there is a weakness is in itself a weakness. Likewise, accepting that we have weaknesses becomes a strength. And by the same token, overestimating strength is a weakness. You should not be blinded by your strengths. The feeling of strength is not the same as having strength. Neither should you ignore your weaknesses. Know them well, too.

  Joseph M. Marshall III

  Strength, Being Strong, Feelings

  28 Copy quote

• Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! [...] I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.

  John Chivington

  Sympathy, God, Believe

  "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (War Comes to the Cheyenne)". Book by Dee Brown (pp. 86-87), 1970.

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• I want to get rid of the Indian problem. [...] Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian Question and no Indian Department.

  Duncan Campbell Scott

  Poetry, Body, Want

  49 Copy quote

• No human being should ever have to fear for his own life because of political or religious beliefs. We are all in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her ..never forget that.

  Leonard Peltier

  Inspirational, Mother, Religious

  186 Copy quote

• We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.

  N. Scott Momaday

  Destiny, Imagination, Tragedy

  86 Copy quote

• Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.

  Wilma Mankiller

  Inspirational, Running, Adversity

  154 Copy quote

• Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Respect, Peace, People

  256 Copy quote

• Instead of a man of peace and love, I have become a man of violence and revenge.

  Hiawatha

  Love, Peace, Revenge

  127 Copy quote

• Even the people who come our way look upon us in amazement, that we run only for the healing of Mother Earth

  Dennis Banks

  Mother, Running, Healing

  67 Copy quote

• Why should you take by force that from us that which you can have by Love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food What can you get by war?

  Chief Powhatan

  Love, War, Food

  Address to Captain John Smith, delivered in 1609

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• We must relearn how to cry. A strong man cries; it is the weak man who holds back his tears.

  Archie Fire Lame Deer

  Inspirational, Strength, Strong

  68 Copy quote