Riel Quotes & Sayings

We must cherish our inheritance. We must preserve our nationality for the youth of our future. The story should be written down to pass on. — Louis Riel

We folded up newspapers and made them into boats. We'd see whose would float the longest before it got bogged down, soggy, and sank. My father gave us a few pennies each day, which we'd toss and try to land on rocks.We'd wade in and get them again and again.Then we'd flip them in one final time to make a wish. Bliss and I could keep ourselves entertained for hours, but of course we became more and more aware that the whole forest was right there -- waiting for us to explore.
We didn't go far at first, not beyond where we could hear Mom call for us from the back door of the barn, but it gave us a whole new playground. We found a fallen log that we walked like a plank. There was a tree with a low straight branch that we could dangle and swing from. We gathered pine cones and tossed and batted them with twigs. — Riel Nason

There I was limited to what happened the same way I am with Riel. It doesn't feel like a great burden to have your story, to some degree, set. I am enjoying figuring out what I think is the most dramatic way of telling this set of historical facts. — Chester Brown

I am more convinced everyday that without a single exception I did right. And I have always believed that, as I have acted honestly, the time will come when the people of Canada will see and acknowledge it. — Louis Riel

The whole crowd interrupted and told him, 'No, we won't let you go. You have worked hard for our rights and you can't quit now.'
'Then,' said Riel, 'if I must, I will desert.'
'If you desert, we will desert with you. — Gabriel Dumont

I know that through the grace of God, I am the founder of Manitoba. — Louis Riel

My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back. — Louis Riel

I suppose the half-breeds in Manitoba, in 1870, did not fight for two hundred forty acres of land, but it is to be understood there were two societies who treated together. One was small, but in its smallness it had its rights. The other was great, but in its greatness it had no greater rights than the rights of the small, because the right is the same for everyone. — Louis Riel

I have nothing but my heart and I have given it long ago to my country. — Louis Riel

Deeds are not accomplished in a few days, or in a few hours. A century is only a spoke in the wheel of everlasting time. — Louis Riel

I am glad that the Crown have proved that I am the leader of the Half-breeds in the North-West. I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the Half-breeds, and if I am I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country. — Louis Riel

Life, without the dignity of an intelligent being, is not worth having. — Louis Riel