The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us; we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
BLACK ELKThe 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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
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The power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
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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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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
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I cured with the power that came through me.
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We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
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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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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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The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other.
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Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
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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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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.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
BLACK ELK