Standing Bear Native American Quotes & Sayings

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 there was apparently nothing to see, and to listen intently when all seemingly was quiet. A child who cannot sit still is a half-developed child. — Luther Standing Bear

Don't be afraid to fail. Experience is just mistakes you don't make anymore. — Joe Garagiola

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 was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that, "thought comes before speech." — Luther Standing Bear

The fatal false step which, once taken, would thrust her down into the terrible slavery of appetite and hate and economics and government which our race knows so well. — C.S. Lewis

Since people who "discovered" bodies in odd places were often the people who had put them there in the first place. — Laurie R. King

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 brotherly feeling that kept us safe among them ... The animals had rights - the right of man's protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to man's indebtedness. This concept of life and its relations filled us with the joy and mystery of living; it gave us reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all. — Chief Luther Standing Bear

We're like meridians, all beginning and ending in the same place. We spread out from the beginning and go our separate ways, over seas and mountains and islands and deserts, each telling our own story, as different as they could possibly be. But in the end we all converge and our ends are as much the same as our beginnings. — Neal Stephenson

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 hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged ... — Luther Standing Bear

Wherever forests have not been mowed down, wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever the earth is not bereft of four-footed life - that to the white man is an 'unbroken wilderness.'
But for us there was no wilderness, nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly. Our faith sought the harmony of man with his surroundings; the other sought the dominance of surroundings.
For us, the world was full of beauty; for the other, it was a place to be endured until he went to another world.
But we were wise. We knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard. — Chief Luther Standing Bear

After independence was gained, one of the first Acts passed by the Greek government was for the protection and preservation of national monuments. — Melina Mercouri

This life is about progress, advancement, moving forward. It's becoming our very best and brightest selves. — Toni Sorenson

No way. Right tackle only.... No more left
out. — Tim Green

To make a friend you must close one eye. And to keep a friend, you must close both eyes. — Victor Robert Lee

For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly. — Luther Standing Bear

I don't feel the need to be seen, to be glorified in any way. — Tim Howard

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 soon led to lack of respect for humans too. — Luther Standing Bear