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I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.

Black Elk

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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Thinking
Four
Voice
Next
Firsts
First
Must
Voices
Years
Summer
Think
Heard

More quotes by Black Elk

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I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.
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It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death. He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka, who is everything then he knows that world which is real.
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Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.
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When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
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Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions
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The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
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But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision for the people to see.
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A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
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I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
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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.
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When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
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If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
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And if the great fear had not come upon me, as it did, and forced me to do my duty, I might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
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