Hear me, four quarters of the world-a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.
BLACK ELKIt may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.
More Black Elk Quotes
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The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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Know the Power that is Peace.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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The power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
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When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the Spirit intends.
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And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
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Perhaps you have noticed that even in the very lightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in differing ways.
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Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
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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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Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
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Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us; and it was very still; but there were whispers.
BLACK ELK