Chief Joseph Quotes

88 quotes in 876 categories

• Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they…
• 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…
• 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,…
• 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…
• The eye tells what the tongue would hide.
• 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…
• 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…
• We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!
• 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…
• The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.
• We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man…
• 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…
• Our chiefs are killed. . . . The little children are freezing to death. . . . My people have no blankets, no food. .…
• Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.
• I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would give up my country.
• My father was the first to see through the schemes of the white man.
• I am not a child, I think for myself. No man can think for me.
• I know that my race must change.
• If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indianwe can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.…
• 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…

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