Indian Wisdom Quotes

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

  Chief Seattle

  Motivational, Wisdom, Peace

  279 Copy quote

• Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

  Standing Bear

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

  67 Copy quote

• Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.

  Terri Farley

  Native American, Tongue, Deaf

  15 Copy quote

• If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

  Chief Dan George

  Inspirational, Life, Native American

  334 Copy quote

• I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth.

  Red Cloud

  Children, Father, Native American

  76 Copy quote
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  The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Native American, Rights

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

  132 Copy quote

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  It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Truth, Native American, Reality

  213 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.

  49 Copy quote

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• So long as mists envelop you, be still. Be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists - as it surely will. Then act with courage.

  Chief White Eagle

  Native American, Long, Pieces

  17 Copy quote
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  There is no death, only a change of worlds.

  Chief Seattle

  Change, Sympathy, Native American

  Albert Furtwangler, Chief Seattle (1997). “Answering Chief Seattle”, p.25, University of Washington Press

  133 Copy quote

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• May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears. And, above all, may silence make you strong.

  Chief Dan George

  Stars, Flower, Condolences

  580 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

  12 Copy quote

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• Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

  Sitting Bull

  Fake People, Native American, Men

  160 Copy quote

• I have Indian Blood in me. I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!

  Will Rogers

  Honesty, Native American, Blood

  13 Copy quote

• I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Shapes

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

  22 Copy quote

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• We do not want churches. They will teach us to quarrel about God.

  Chief Joseph

  Religion, Church, Want

  23 Copy quote

• The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

  Black Elk

  Stars, Native American, Wind

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

  25 Copy quote

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• He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Heart, Wish

  "God Is Red: A Native View of Religion". Book by Vine Deloria, Jr., 1972.

  16 Copy quote

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• The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, they speak to me. The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me. The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me. The strength of the fire, the taste of the salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.

  Chief Dan George

  Morning, Nature, Stars

  Chief Dan George, “My Heart Soars”

  529 Copy quote

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• Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.

  Tecumseh

  Lonely, Morning, Lying

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

  109 Copy quote

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• 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

  22 Copy quote

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• How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

  Black Hawk

  Native American, Native Language, Looks

  Black Hawk, John B. Patterson (1836). “Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war”, p.97

  141 Copy quote

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• Help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence.

  Robert Muller

  Attitude, Native American, Silence

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  37 Copy quote

• 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.

  209 Copy quote

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