Chief Joseph Quotes

Quotes about:

• 

  I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do.

  Chief Joseph

  Believe, Men, Spirit

  177 Copy quote
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  It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Truth, Native American, Reality

  225 Copy quote

• 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, free to 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

  Mother, Teacher, Brother

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

  224 Copy quote
• 

  I believe much trouble would be saved if we opened our hearts more.

  Chief Joseph

  Love, Spiritual, Believe

  185 Copy quote
• 

  The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Native American, Rights

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

  141 Copy quote

• I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Tired, Native American, Heart

  178 Copy quote
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  Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

  Chief Joseph

  Life, Strength, Teacher

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

  203 Copy quote

• We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.

  Chief Joseph

  Men, Justice, Diversity

  213 Copy quote

• The eye tells what the tongue would hide.

  Chief Joseph

  Eye, Silence, Tongue

  58 Copy quote

• Our chiefs are killed. . . . The little children are freezing to death. . . . My people have no blankets, no food. . . . My heart is sick and sad. . . . I will fight no more forever.

  Chief Joseph

  Death, Children, Heart

  167 Copy quote

• Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them." I say to him, "No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them." Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him, "Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell." My neighbor answers, "Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses." The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them." If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.

  Chief Joseph

  I Like You, Horse, Native American

  Arguing against the right of the US Government to force his people to leave their lands, 1876.

  189 Copy quote

• The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it... Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who created it. I claim a right to live on my land and accord you the privilege to live on yours.

  Chief Joseph

  Country, Men, Land

  182 Copy quote

• Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.

  Chief Joseph

  Long, Lasts, Action

  122 Copy quote

• Look twice at a two-faced man.

  Chief Joseph

  Men, Two, Looks

  20 Copy quote

• All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Running, Brother

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

  131 Copy quote

• 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

  Native American, Dust, Tree

  118 Copy quote

• I am ready to talk today. I have been in a great many councils, but I am no wiser. We are all sprung from a woman, although we are unlike in many things. We can not be made over again. You are as you were made, and as you were made you can remain. We are just as we were made by the Great Spirit, and you can not change us ; then why should children of one mother and one father quarrel ? — why should one try to cheat the other ? I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Children, Father

  162 Copy quote

• I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

  Chief Joseph

  Men, White Man, Authority

  North American Review, Apr. 1879

  129 Copy quote

• It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.

  Chief Joseph

  Broken Heart, Sick, Broken Promises

  82 Copy quote

• I am not a child, I think for myself. No man can think for me.

  Chief Joseph

  Children, Men, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• Treat all men alike. Give them the same law. Give them an even chance to live and grow.

  Chief Joseph

  Men, Law, Giving

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

  115 Copy quote

• It takes few words to tell the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Truth, Few Words, Telling The Truth

  35 Copy quote

• Good words will not give me back my children.

  Chief Joseph

  Children, Giving, Give Me

  10 Copy quote

• The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the neasure of our bodies are the same

  Chief Joseph

  Land, Mind, Body

  55 Copy quote

• All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.

  Chief Joseph

  Brother, Native American, Reality

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

  24 Copy quote

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