Black Elk Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Inspirational, Relationship, Wisdom

  "The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux". Book by Black Elk and Joseph Epes Brown, 1953.

  273 Copy quote

• All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.

  Black Elk

  Ahimsa, All Things

  193 Copy quote

• The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other. Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth. It (the community) cares for that part (of the Earth) but cares for it as a circle - which is to say in a cooperative and egalitarian way, where everybody is cared for, and everybody is respected.

  Black Elk

  Circles, Community, Together

  180 Copy quote

• Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.

  Black Elk

  Prayer, Earth, Steps

  181 Copy quote

• I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. 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. 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.

  Black Elk

  Mother, Children, Father

  "Black Elk Speaks". Book by John Gneisenau Neihardt, 1932.

  190 Copy quote

• We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know the Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the four-legged and winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples. When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the Spirit intends.

  Black Elk

  Heart, Animal, Rivers

  155 Copy quote

• Behold this day. It is yours to make.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Life, Inspirational Life

  97 Copy quote

• Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

  Black Elk

  Children, Native American, Heart

  "The Sacred Pipe : Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux" recorded and edited by Joseph Epes Brown, 1953.

  180 Copy quote

• At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.

  Black Elk

  Peace, Native American, Oneness

  167 Copy quote

• Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, It is every where.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Life, Heart

  96 Copy quote

• 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. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.

  Black Elk

  Country, Lying, Dirty

  151 Copy quote

• 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

  Black Elk

  Ignorance, Passion, Men

  140 Copy quote

• As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.

  Black Elk

  Prayer, Earth, Sacred

  31 Copy quote

• One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Nature, Attention

  113 Copy quote

• It is not enough to have a vision. In order to have its power, you must enact your vision on earth for all to see. Only then do you have the power.

  Black Elk

  Order, Vision, Earth

  35 Copy quote

• Hear me, four quarters of the world-a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.

  Black Elk

  Eye, Wind, Giving

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

  25 Copy quote

• All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Life, Sky

  78 Copy quote

• 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. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

  Black Elk

  Strong, Native American, Circles

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

  16 Copy quote

• I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

  Black Elk

  Beautiful, Dream, Children

  "Black Elk Speaks". Book by John Gneisenau Neihardt, 1932.

  143 Copy quote

• It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death. 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 Elk

  Death, Real, Understanding

  "The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux". Book by Black Elk and Joseph Epes Brown, 1953.

  21 Copy quote

• May you always walk in Beauty.

  Black Elk

  May, Walks

  107 Copy quote

• There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Life, Peace

  "The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux" by Black Elk, 1953.

  66 Copy quote

• Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

  Black Elk

  Native American, World, Sacred

  31 Copy quote

• I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Shapes

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Honesty, Native American

  39 Copy quote

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