Native American Wisdom Quotes:

The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

- Chief Seattle

source: Chief Seattle, “This we know”

topic: Life, Travel, Men, Seattle, Web Of Life

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide

- Tecumseh

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Song, Love You, Heart, Indian Tribes, Indian Wisdom

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

- Black Elk

topic: Inspirational, Wisdom, Peace, Spirit And Soul, Elders

So long as mists envelop you, be still. Be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists - as it surely will. Then act with courage.

- Chief White Eagle

topic: Native American, Long, Pieces, Indian Wisdom, Elders

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Truth, Native American, Reality, Indian Wisdom, Broken Promises

The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, they speak to me. The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me. The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me. The strength of the fire, the taste of the salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.

- Chief Dan George

source: Chief Dan George, “My Heart Soars”

topic: Nature, Morning, Stars, Indian Wisdom, Softness

Help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence.

- Robert Muller

topic: Attitude, Silence, Mind, Spiritual Indian, Elders

We believe profoundly in silence-the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.

- Charles Alexander Eastman

topic: Believe, Perfect, Silence, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

- Standing Bear

topic: Nature, Heart, Men, Man And Nature, Beautiful Nature

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

- Chief Dan George

topic: Native American, Animal, Native, Indian Wisdom, Great Spirit

May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears.

- Chief Dan George

topic: Stars, Flower, Condolences, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Teaching

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself...

- Tecumseh

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Lonely, Morning, Lying, Indian, Joy Of Living

The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.

- Mary Brave Bird

source: Mary Brave Bird, Richard Erdoes (2007). “Ohitika Woman”, p.220, Grove Press

topic: Inspirational, Mother, Land, Native America, Native American Earth

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

- Will Rogers

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Moving On, Indian, Indian Wisdom

The Wise Man believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astire on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool-his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

- Charles Alexander Eastman

source: Charles Alexander Eastman, Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). “The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World”, p.23, World Wisdom, Inc

topic: Wise, Attitude, Believe, Indian Wisdom, Cornerstones

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. 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. Birds make their nest in circles... The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

- John Neihardt

topic: Stars, Native American, Moon, Indian Wisdom, Native America

Do the very best you can.

- Dale Carnegie

source: Dale Carnegie (2010). “How To Enjoy Your Life And Your Job”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

topic: Success, Giving Up, Fear, Native American Wisdom

Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.

- William Commanda

topic: Native American, Technology, Light, Spiritual Indian, Two Roads

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

- Tecumseh

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Life, Death, Wisdom, Indian Wisdom, Meaningful Death

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace.....Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.......Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade....where I choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

- Chief Joseph

source: Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

topic: Mother, Teacher, Brother, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

- Tecumseh

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Wise, Vision, Abuse, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

- Tecumseh

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Love You, Perfect, Love Your Life, Indian, Indian Tribes

We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Native American, Dust, Tree, Great Native American, Great Spirit

There is no death, only a change of worlds.

- Chief Seattle

source: Albert Furtwangler, Chief Seattle (1997). “Answering Chief Seattle”, p.25, University of Washington Press

topic: Change, Native American, Psychics, Indian Wisdom, Meaningful Death

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.

- Crowfoot

topic: Life, Running, Nature, Indian Tribes, Indian Wisdom

We do not want riches, we want peace and love.

- Red Cloud

topic: Love, Peace, Want, Indian Wisdom, Peace Love

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Native American, Men, Sight, Indian, Lakota

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

- Crazy Horse

topic: Children, Parent, Earth, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

- Luther Standing Bear

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.192, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Healing, Feet, Air, Indian, Spiritual Indian

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.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Native American, Men, White, Indian, Lakota

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

- Chief Seattle

topic: Motivational, Wisdom, Peace, Indian, Indian Wisdom

He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone.

- Seneca the Younger

topic: Native American, American Indian, All Alone, Great Native American, Native American Indian

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

- Tecumseh

topic: Song, Hero, Home, Indian Tribes, Meaningful Death

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

- Sitting Bull

source: "I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians". Book by Virginia Armstrong, Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.

topic: Heart, Men, Eagles, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

- Black Elk

topic: Circles, Bird, Religion, Cherokee, Native American Dream

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

- Sitting Bull

topic: Fake People, Native American, Men, Indian, Indian Wisdom

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.

- Black Elk

topic: Inspirational, Together, Shapes, Indian, Indian Wisdom

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.

- Luther Standing Bear

source: Luther Standing Bear (1978). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.197, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Wise, Heart, Men, Man And Nature, Lakota

I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.

- Red Cloud

topic: Love, Life, Peace, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Travel, Men, Let Me, Indian, Spiritual Indian

Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease and herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

- Mourning Dove

source: Mourning Dove (1994). “Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography”, p.69, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Marijuana, Earth, Disease, Indian Wisdom, American Spirit

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

- Sitting Bull

source: Sitting Bull, Mark Diedrich (1998). “Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches”

topic: Animal, Yield, Land, Spiritual Indian, Animal Spirits

Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Men, White, Poor, Indian, Footsteps

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

- Black Hawk

source: Black Hawk, John B. Patterson (1836). “Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war”, p.97

topic: Native American, Looks, Language, Native Language, Indigenous