Quotessence
Home / Books / Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

Book by Black Elk · 13 quotes · Native American, Native, Circles

Filter quotes by topic

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux Quotes

“I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.”

“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.”

“Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.”

“The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.”

“Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

“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.”

“The power of the world always works in circles.”

“Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.”

“And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father.”

“And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.”