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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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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Even
Memories
Good
Vision
Never
Upon
Men
Less
People
Fear
Dreamed
Might
Forced
Come
Memory
Great
Duty

More quotes by Black Elk

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All things are our relatives what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
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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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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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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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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
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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.
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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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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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Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us and it was very still but there were whispers.
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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.
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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.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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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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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
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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.
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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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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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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.
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It's in the darkness of men's eyes that they get lost.
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