But if the Vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet;for such things are of Spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.
BLACK ELKIf 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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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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 power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
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You remember that my great vision came to me when I was only nine years old, and you have seen that I was not much good for anything until after I had performed the horse dance near the mouth of the Tongue River during my eighteenth summer.
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Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
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Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions
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I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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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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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.
BLACK ELK -
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
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We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know the Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the four-legged and winged peoples; and even more important.
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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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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 ELK