The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
BLACK ELKBut I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.
More Black Elk Quotes
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All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
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Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
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The Holy Land is everywhere.
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Know the Power that is Peace.
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The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other.
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If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
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But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.
BLACK ELK -
Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
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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.
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I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead – and that one was myself.
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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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I might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
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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.
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Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.
BLACK ELK







