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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.

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
Earth
Able
Must
Performed
Men
Understood
Think
Told
Thinking
Vision
People
Use
Power

More quotes by Black Elk

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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
Black Elk
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
Black Elk
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The Holy Land is everywhere.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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Know the Power that is Peace.
Black Elk
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Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
Black Elk
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May you always walk in Beauty.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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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
Black Elk
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Every place is the center of the world.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
Black Elk
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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
Black Elk