Indian Quotes - Page 26

• According to the true Indian view, our consciousness of the world, merely as the sum total of things that exist, and as governed by laws, is imperfect. But it is perfect when our consciousness realizes all things as spiritually one with it, and there

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Inspiration, Views, Law

  Rabindranath Tagore (2004). “Tagore”, p.29, SkyLight Paths Publishing

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• Non-Indian writers usually say "Great Spirit," "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four-Legged, and Winged." Mixed-blood writers usually say "Creator, "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four- Legged, and Winged." Indian writers usually say "God," "Mother Earth," "Human Being, Dog, and Bird."

  Sherman Alexie

  Mother, Dog, Honesty

  David Lehman, Sherman Alexie (2015). “The Best American Poetry 2015”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

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• We know that this nation entered into solemn treaties [with Indian tribes] which have been continuously violated for more than 250 years. It's a disgrace. It's an outrage. We must do everything in our power to keep those treaties. Otherwise, the word of the United States government is no good.

  John McCain

  Years, Government, Tribes

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• Lo! the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
  Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
  His soul proud Science never taught to stray
  Far as the solar walk or milky way.

  Alexander Pope

  God, Science, Clouds

  'An Essay on Man' Epistle 1 (1733) l. 99

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• The idiot, the Indian, the child and unschooled farmer's boy stand nearer to the light by which nature is to be read, than the dissector or the antiquary.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Nature, Children, Science

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.25, Graphic Arts Books

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• The Indian is making an amazing discovery, namely that Christianity and Jesus are not the same - that they may have Jesus without the system that has been built up around Him in the West.

  E. Stanley Jones

  Jesus, Discovery, Missionary

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• I'm the daughter of two Indian immigrant doctors, and I have an older sister and younger brother, and none of us have pursued medicine as a career. We're all over the artistic side of things.

  Aarti Mann

  Daughter, Mother, Brother

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• 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

  Inspirational, Mother, Native American

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

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• On how he met Wayne Gretzky: I was in L.A. preparing for Indian Wells, and a mutual friend asked if I'd like to have dinner with him. I think one of his daughters plays tennis so he knew about me. It was obviously something I was excited to do, and I left the dinner pretty amazed.

  Milos Raonic

  Daughter, Mother, Thinking

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• IT+IT=IT; Indian talent + Information technology = India Tomorrow

  Narendra Modi

  Powerful, Technology, India

  Twitter post from Mar 21, 2013

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• Indian economy is suffering from policy paralysis and lack of optimism. I am confident that with right kind of decisions, we can once again generate hope and confidence and turnaround our economy.

  Narendra Modi

  Powerful, Optimism, Decision

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• If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!

  Tom Brown, Jr.

  Children, Native American, Journey

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• 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

  Native American, Technology, Two

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• The idea of full dress in preparation for a battle comes not from a belief that it will add to the fighting ability. The preparation is for death, in case that should be the result of the conflict. Every Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet the Great Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether in imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace.

  Wooden Leg

  Death, Native American, Fighting

  "Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer".

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• Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike-brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all.

  Chief Joseph

  Country, Brother, Father

  "Why use of Native American nicknames is an obvious affront" by Steve Wulf, www.espn.com. September 3, 2014.

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• The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Race, Land

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• All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot of Native American literature is stuck in one idea: sort of spiritual, environmentalist Indians. And I want to portray everyday lives. I think by doing that, by portraying the ordinary lives of Indians, perhaps people learn something new.

  Sherman Alexie

  Spiritual, Native American, Thinking

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• Humor is widely used by Indians to deal with life. Indian gatherings are marked by laughter and jokes, many directed at the horrors of history, at the continuing impact of colonization, and at the biting knowledge that living as an exile in one's own land necessitates. . . . Certainly the time frame we presently inhabit has much that is shabby and tricky to offer; and much that needs to be treated with laughter and ironic humor.

  Paula Gunn Allen

  Laughter, Land, Impact

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• What we did in the 1960s and early 1970s was raise the consciousness of white America that this government has a responsibility to Indian people. That there are treaties; that textbooks in every school in America have a responsibility to tell the truth. An awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong. And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing. From that, our own people began to sense the pride.

  Dennis Banks

  School, Responsibility, Native American

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• 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

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• This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

  Vine Deloria Jr.

  Running, Country, American Indian

  Vine Deloria, Jr., James Treat (2013). “For This Land: Writings on Religion in America”, p.8, Routledge

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• I certainly don't object to [writers] trying to imagine the lives of other societies, but you have to do it with a certain amount of humility and respect. If it were not for the ethnographic material that had been collected by missionaries and anthropologists and so forth, much of past Native American society would no longer be accessible. What I object to is making kitsch of things that are very serious.

  Michael Dorris

  Humility, Native American, Past

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• It's impossible to write about Native life without humor-that's how people maintain sanity.

  Louise Erdrich

  Writing, People, Impossible

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• There aren't a lot of alternative roles for Indian actors. I think we've fallen short of portraying Indians in the media. We don't need to make another Dances With Wolves, because it's not an Indian movie. When Indians portray themselves, then we have a different perspective. I've been asked about making period pieces but I've never read one that wasn't about guilt, and I'm not trying to make a guilt film.

  Chris Eyre

  Thinking, Media, Perspective

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• Indians and animals know better how to live than white man; nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good water.

  Flying Hawk

  Sunshine, Men, Animal

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