Quotes from Luther Standing Bear

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness'.

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

The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, man is still confronted with the Great Mystery.

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.

Silence is the Mother of Truth, for the silent man was ever to be trusted, while the man ever ready with speech was never taken seriously.

White men seem to have difficulty in realizing that people who live differently from themselves still might be traveling the upward and progressive road of life.

It is the mothers not the warriors who create a people and guide their destiny.

A man's heart away from nature becomes hard; lack of respect for growing, living things soon leads to a lack of respect for humans too.

Civilization has been thrust upon me... and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.

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.

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

As a child I understood how to give, I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized. -

Generosity is a mark of bravery, so all Sioux boys were taught to be generous.

Now all these virtues mean one thing, and that is bravery. A Sioux boy was taught to be brave always. It was not sufficient to be brave enough to go to war. He must be brave enough to make personal sacrifices and to think little of personal gain. To be brave was the supreme test of a Sioux boy, and this bravery might receive a greater test in times of peace than in times of war.

Never rail at the storms, the furious winds, the biting frosts and snows...Bright days and dark days are both expressions of the great mystery.

The Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that a lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for humans, too.

There was no such thing as emptiness in the world. Even in the sky there were no vacant places. Everywhere there was life, visible and invisible, and every object possessed something that would be good for us to have also—even to the very stones.

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...

Civilization has been thrust upon me... and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.