Great Native American Quotes

• What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.

  Crowfoot

  Life, Change, Death

  100 Copy quote

• Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

  Black Elk

  Moving, Native American, Circles

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

  24 Copy quote

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

  Seneca the Younger

  Native American, American Indian, All Alone

  9 Copy quote

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

  Tecumseh

  Wise, Native American, Abuse

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

  53 Copy quote

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• So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

  Tecumseh

  Song, Love You, Native American

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

  180 Copy quote

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• Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony.

  Chief Dan George

  Native American, Harmony, American Indian

  150 Copy quote

• Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors - the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

  Chief Seattle

  Dream, Native American, Heart

  12 Copy quote

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

  Tecumseh

  Country, Children, Sea

  Speech to William Henry Harrison, Vincennes, Indiana Territory, 14 Aug. 1810

  23 Copy quote

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• We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone.

  Canasatego

  Native American, Thinking, Land

  10 Copy quote

• As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Children, Native American, Giving

  11 Copy quote

• The power of the world always works in circles.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, World

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

  20 Copy quote

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• We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

  Chief Seattle

  Motivational, Wisdom, Peace

  301 Copy quote
• 

  It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Truth, Native American, Reality

  232 Copy quote

• Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease and herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

  Mourning Dove

  Native American, Marijuana, Purpose

  Mourning Dove (1994). “Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography”, p.69, U of Nebraska Press

  16 Copy quote

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• Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Knowledge, Library, World

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.194, U of Nebraska Press

  73 Copy quote

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• I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.

  Crazy Horse

  Eye, Native American, Native Country

  371 Copy quote

• Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Life, Children, Native American

  64 Copy quote

• [last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

  Crowfoot

  Sunset, Native American, Firefly

  "Aging in the Modern World: Selections from the Literature of Aging for Pleasure and Instruction". Book by ‎Clark Tibbitts, p. 222, 1957.

  17 Copy quote

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• If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Heart, Men

  "I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians". Book by Virginia Armstrong, Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.

  216 Copy quote

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• Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Honesty, Native American

  39 Copy quote

• All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Running, Brother

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

  131 Copy quote

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• We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Dust, Tree

  120 Copy quote

• This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things... This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land.

  Spotted Tail

  Children, Father, Spring

  80 Copy quote

• When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.

  Chief Seattle

  Inspirational, Life, Native American

  65 Copy quote

• We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not; and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.

  Chief Joseph

  Rivers, Mountain, Suits

  48 Copy quote