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.
BLACK ELKOut 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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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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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Know the Power that is Peace.
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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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Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
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The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. That is why you notice the hawk knows how to get his prey. The Indian is like that.
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Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us.
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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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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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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.
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We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
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It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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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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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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And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
BLACK ELK