Luther Standing Bear Quotes

22 quotes in 427 categories

• The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity…
• White men seem to have difficulty in realizing that people who live differently from themselves still might be traveling the upward and progressive road of…
• Today the children of our public schools are taught more of the history, heroes, legends, and sagas of the old world than of the land…
• Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage" people. To us…
• "Civilization" has been thrust upon me since the days of the reservations, and it has not added one whit to my sense of justice, to…
• Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness'.
• 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…
• Training began with children who were taught to sit still and enjoy it. They were taught to use their organs of smell, to look where…
• We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth was beautiful and…
• For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.
• 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…
• Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a…
• Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.
• It is the mothers not the warriors who create a people and guide their destiny.
• Silence is the Mother of Truth, for the silent man was ever to be trusted, while the man ever ready with speech was never taken…
• The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the…
• Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one…
• The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
• After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, man is still confronted with the Great Mystery.
• Civilization has been thrust upon me... and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.

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