“A small country cannot contend with a great; the few cannot contend with the many; the weak cannot contend with the strong.”

When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. They submit because their strength is not adequate to resist.

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.

Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.

The gap between enthusiasm and indifference is filled with failures. The great man is he that does not lose his child’s heart.

When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon you, it first exercises your mind with suffering and your sinews and bones with toil.

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honour, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams, and memories.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

If the King loves music, it is well with the land.

He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.

The myriad things are complete in us. There is no greater joy than to reflect on ourselves and become sincere.

The foundation of the world lies in the nation. The foundation of the nation lies in the family. The foundation of the family lies in the individual.

He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.

The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off; the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult.

Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be capable of doing great things.

Go back home where you came from. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people.

Why, in a country of free speech, are there phone bills?

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.

Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.

Our country has often stood like a solid rock in the face of common danger, and there is a deep underlying unity which runs like a golden thread through all our seeming diversity.

I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.

It breaks my heart to know so many children in our country do not have access to education.

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?