These 100 Inspirational Native American quotes are a selection of the best quotes from the other Native American pages on this site:
Quotes from PEOPLE
Quotes from TRIBES
Quotes from UNKNOWN
You will find more quotes on these pages and the complete wording of those that are shortened here.

You can also purchase a printable boxed set of these 100 quotes through my Spiritual Quotes To Live By shop on Etsy. Along with 100 quote sets.

100 Native American quotes are listed alphabetically on authors surname

A 100 Native American Quotes

If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come.
Arapaho tribe

When we show respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.
Arapaho tribe

B 100 Native American Quotes

All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
Black Elk

Behold this day. It is yours to make.
Black Elk

Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.
Black Elk

Great Spirit, the good road and the road of difficulties you have made me cross; and where they cross, the place is holy.
Black Elk

Grown men can learn from very little children, for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
Black Elk

Know the power that is Peace.
Black Elk

Let every step you take upon the Earth be as a prayer.
Black Elk

May you always walk in beauty.
Black Elk

One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.
Black Elk

Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, it is everywhere.
Black Elk

Perhaps you have noticed that even in the slightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cotton tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.
Black Elk

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 at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
Black Elk

The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and our hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice.
Black Elk

The Holy Land is everywhere.
Black Elk

Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.
Blackfoot tribe

When we lift our hands we signify our dependence on the Great Spirit.
Blackfoot tribe

C 100 Native American Quotes

Listen! Or your tongue will make you deaf.
Cherokee tribe

May your way be blessed with life by the unifying force of the Great Holy Spirit.
Cherokee tribe

May the warm winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there
May your moccasins
Make happy tracks
In many snows
And may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder
Cherokee tribe

O Great Spirit
Help me always:
To speak the truth quietly
To listen with an open mind when others speak
And to remember the peace that may be found in silence.
Cherokee tribe

The whole Earth belongs to the Great Spirit.
Cherokee tribe

If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can afford to be as harmless as a dove.
Cheyenne tribe

Our first teacher is our own heart.
Cheyenne tribe

We call upon all that we hold most sacred, the presence and power of the Great Spirit of love and truth which flows through all the Universe, to be with us to… Teach us, and show us the Way.
Chinook tribe

I am opening my heart to speak to you.. Open yours to receive my words.
Como tribe

When the sun goes down, he opens his heart to God, and earlier than the sun appears on the hills, he gives thanks for his protection during the night.
Chief Corn Planter

I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that centre within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one.
Chief Crazy Horse

You already possess everything necessary to become great.
Crow tribe

A little while and I will be gone from among you, when I cannot tell. From nowhere we came, into nowhere we go.
What is life?
It is the flash of firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
And loses itself in the sunset.
Chief Crowfoot

D 100 Native American Quotes

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
Dakota tribe

May the stars carry your darkness away. May the flowers fill your heart with beauty. May hope forever wipe away your tears. And above all, may silence make you strong.
Chief Dan George

The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dew drop on the flower, speaks to me.
The strength of fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.
Chief Dan George

The only thing necessary for tranquillity in the world is that every child grows up happy.
Chief Dan George

F 100 Native American Quotes

Nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine and good water.
Chief Flying Hawk

The Indian needs no writings; words that are true sink deep into his heart where they remain in silence. He never forgets them.
Chief Four Guns

G 100 Native American Quotes

There is one God looking down on us all. We are all children of one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds, are all listening to what we now say.
Geronimo

When a child my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun and sky, the moon and stars, the clouds and storms. She also taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection.
Geronimo

H 100 Native American Quotes

Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you.
Hopi tribe

J 100 Native American Quotes

Our wish is for peace. Peace at home and peace among you.
Chief John Ross

It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph

The Earth and myself are of one mind.
Chief Joseph

The Great Spirit is looking at me and will hear me.
Chief Joseph

K 100 Native American Quotes

The Great Spirit has smiled upon us and made us glad.
Chief Keokuk

L 100 Native American Quotes

Teach me how to trust
My heart
My mind
My intuition
My inner knowing
The senses of my body
The blessings of my spirit
Teach me to trust these things
So that I may enter my Sacred Space
And love beyond my fear
And thus Walk In Balance
With the passing of each glorious Sun.
Lakota tribe

The greatest power is the Creator. But, if you want to know the greatest strength.. That is gentleness.
Chief Leon Shenandoah

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.
Chief Luther Standing Bear

Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that, thought comes before speech.
Chief Luther Standing Bear

The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.
Chief Luther Standing Bear

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a 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. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
Chief Luther Standing Bear

We did not think of the open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Only the white man was nature a wilderness, and only to him was it ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
Chief Luther Standing Bear

M 100 Native American Quotes

They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank.
Chief Maquinna

Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.
Mohawk tribe

Everything on Earth has a purpose, every disease a herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Mourning Dove

O 100 Native American Quotes

We were taught generosity to the poor and reverence for the Great Mystery. Religion was the basis of all Indian training.
Ohiyesa aka Charles Alexander Eastman

Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, the hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful, or sublime – a black thundercloud with the rainbow’s glowing arch above the mountain, a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge, a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of the sunset – he pauses for an instant in the attitude of worship.
Ohiyesa aka Charles Alexander Eastman

All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, it is the same with animals, and with human beings. The reason Wakan Tanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here to be an independent individual and to rely upon itself….
Okute aka Shooter

Although we are in different boats, you in your boat and we in our canoe, we share the same river of life.
Oren Lyons 1930

P 100 Native American Quotes

We must help one another and the Great Spirit will help us both, because one suffers and does not deserve it, is no reason he shall suffer always. We may live to see it right yet. If we do not.. our children will.
Chief Pied Riche

R 100 Native American Quotes

God Almighty has made us all.
Chief Red Cloud

We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
Chief Red Cloud

S 100 Native American Quotes

Sharing and giving are the ways of God.
Sauk tribe

All things share the same breath; the beast, the tree, the man. The air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
Chief Seattle

Day and night cannot dwell together. Your religion was written on tables of stone, ours was written on our hearts.
Chief Seattle

Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people.
Chief Seattle

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this Earth is sacred to my people.
We are part of the Earth and it is part of us.
Chief Seattle

Our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch of our ancestors as we walk over this Earth.
Chief Seattle

Our God is also your God. The Earth is precious to Him.
Chief Seattle

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.
Chief Seattle

There is no death, only a change of worlds.
Chief Seattle

Today is fair. Tomorrow may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change.
Chief Seattle

We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth.
Chief Seattle

The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
Chief Seattle

The monitor within my breast has taught me the will of the Great Spirit.
Chief Senachwine

The death of fear is in doing what you fear to do.
Sequichie Comingdeer

Do not hurt your neighbor, for it is not him you wrong but yourself.
Shawnee tribe

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.
Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – 1890

I know the Great Spirit is looking down upon me from above, and will hear what I say.
Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – 1890

In my early days I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly.
Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – 1890

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.
Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – 1890

The Earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.
Chief Sitting Bull 1831 – 1890

This hand is not the color of yours, but if you pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. God made us both.
Chief Standing Bear

T 100 Native American Quotes

Although ice and snow may lie deep upon my wigwam, I should find a warm fire within.
Chief Tecumsah

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life. Perfect your life. Beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.
Chief Tecumsah

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Chief Tecumsah

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
So that when their times comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Chief Tecumsah

They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind.
Tuscarora tribe

U 100 Native American Quotes

God gives us each a song.
Ute tribe

W 100 Native American Quotes

When you are in doubt, be still, and wait.
When doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.
So long as mists envelop you, be still;
Be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists
As it surely will.. Then act with courage.
Chief White Eagle 1840 – 1914

Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life.
Wovoka aka Jack Wilson 1856 – 1932

Y 100 Native American Quotes

O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind
Whose breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me: I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me.
Chief Yellow Lark (translated by him in 1887)

Unknown Person or Tribe

Children are a gift from the heavens.

Honor the Sacred.
Honor the Earth, our Mother.
Honor all with whom we share the Earth.
Walk in balance and beauty.

Listen to the wind.. It talks.
Listen to the silence.. It speaks.
Listen to your heart.. It knows.

Looking behind, I am filled with gratitude.
Looking forward, I am filled with vision.
Looking upwards, I am filled with strength.
Looking within, I discover peace.

May the sun bring you new energy by day.
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
May the breeze blow new strength into your beings.
And all the days of your lives may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty.

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors
We borrow it from our children.

Walk tall as the trees.
Be gentle as the spring rain.
Live strong as the mountains.
Be kind to everything that lives.
Keep the warmth of the sun in your heart.

We sang songs that carried in their melodies all the sounds of nature.

Native American People Quotes
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Native American Various Quotes
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