“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.”

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.

It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.

But 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.

And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.

A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.

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.

So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.

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.

The Holy Land is everywhere.

We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.

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.

Everything tries to be round.

Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death.

Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.

I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.

When he gets mad, it’s like he’s in another world. He’ll look at you with those big eyes and they’ll be going around in circles.

[T]here is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture — in front of us — our own little mirage that we think is the future.

That’s enough, and I have a ministry as a neighbor as well. A ministry as a friend and a ministry as an aunt and a godmother, and family is very much in the circle of my vocation.

The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.

I joined another circle and the leader gave us a little leaflet in very small print, asking us to read it carefully and then come prepared to ask questions.

Any Mexican, would recognise that Mexico was abused.

If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it’s within your reach.

Whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one of a very small circle but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all.