“I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.”

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.

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.

I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.

What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

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.

They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.

I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.

First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland.

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

When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?

I have killed, robbed, and injured too many white men to believe in a good peace.

This is a good day to die. Follow me!

I do not wish to be shut up in a corral. All agency Indians I have seen are worthless. They are neither red warriors nor white farmers. They are neither wolf nor dog.

You’re still going to win with preparation and dedication and plain old desire. If you don’t have genuine desire, you won’t be dedicated enough to prepare properly.

There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.

Using another as a means of satisfaction and security is not love. Love is never security; love is a state in which there is no desire to be secure; it is a state of vulnerability.

Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.

Instead of running from what you don’t want, walk with commitment toward what you desire. Focus on where you are going rather than being obsessed with where you have been.

Don’t force your kids into sports. I never was. To this day, my dad has never asked me to go play golf. I ask him. It’s the child’s desire to play that matters, not the parent’s desire to have the child play. Fun. Keep it fun.

Football games are generally won by the boys with the greatest desire.

Desire makes everything blossom.