He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka, who is everything; then he knows that world which is real.
BLACK ELKThe power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
More Black Elk Quotes
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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 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.
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body; but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
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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.
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The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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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.
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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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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
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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 saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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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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It’s in the darkness of men’s eyes that they get lost.
BLACK ELK