Beautiful Native American Good Morning Quotes for a Soulful Start

There is so much we can learn from the traditional knowledge of Native American peoples.

With the modern civilization racing toward its own destruction at an ever increasing pace, it would be wise to consider the traditional wisdom and spirituality of the indigenous cultures of the world that have survived for thousands of years by being rooted in the land, community and self-sufficiency.

If you would like to learn more about Native American ways of thinking and being in the world, a good place to start is with some of the best quotes from Native American leaders, artists and authors over the last few centuries.

I’ll also include a list of some of the best books about Native American history, culture and traditions at the end for those who want to go deeper and I’ve also written a post about animism as a spiritual ecology.

Here are some of my favourite profound and inspiring quotes from Native Americans:

[su_quote cite=”Chief Luther Standing Bear from the Lakota Sioux”] “The elders were wise. They know that man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; they knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for humans too.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Omaha”] Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered from the heart.[/su_quote]

Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered from the heart

[su_quote cite=”Chief Joseph, Nez Perce”]“We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel with God, as the Catholic and Protestants do. We do not want to learn that.” [/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=” Chief Plenty Coups, Crow Nation”]The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors. [/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=” Chief Seattle”]Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief Luther Standing Bear from the Lakota Sioux”]I am going to venture that 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.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief Crowfoot, Blackfoot”]“Hold on to what is good, Even if it’s a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, Even if it’s a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, Even if it’s a long way from here. Hold on to your life, Even if it’s easier to let go. Hold on to my hand, Even if someday I’ll be gone away from you.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Sioux”]“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 things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Cree Prophecy”]When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Russel Means”]There is a mistaken belief that the word Indian refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492…. Columbus called the tribal people he met “Indio,” from the Italian in dio, meaning “in God.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief Seattle”]When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart; no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Sioux”]Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land ‘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.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Mourning Dove Salish”]Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=” Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief”]“A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Billy Mills”]You have to look deeper, way below the anger, the hurt, the hate, the jealousy, the self-pity, way down deeper where the dreams lie, son. Find your dream. It’s the pursuit of the dream that heals you.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Russel Means”]We Indians do not teach that there is only one god. We know that everything has power, including the most inanimate, inconsequential things. Stones have power. A blade of grass has power. Trees and clouds and all our relatives in the insect and animal world have power. We believe we must respect that power by acknowledging its presence. By honoring the power of the spirits in that way, it becomes our power as well. It protects us.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=” Native American Proverb”]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.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=” John Trudell, Santee Dakota”]“We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it. There can be no trade-off.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Winona LaDuke, Ojibwe”]“Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn’t make a corporation a terrorist.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation”]“May the stars carry your sadness away, May the flowers fill your heart with beauty, May hope forever wipe away your tears, And, above all, may silence make you strong.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation”]“We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sun Bear, Chippewa”]“I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sitting Bull”]“White men have too many chiefs.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sitting Bull”]“The love of possessions is a disease with them (Americans). They take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own and fence the neighbors away.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Joy Harjo”]“Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Geronimo”]“Wisdom and peace come when you start living the life the creator intended for you.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Elk”]“Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Tecumseh”]“A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Cochise”]“You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight into our hearts.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief Joseph”]“It does not require many words to speak the truth.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Elk, Oglala Sioux”]“There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sacagawea”]Amazing the things you find when you bother to search for them.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Hawk”]“The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it.”[/su_quote]

“The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it.”

[su_quote cite=”Chief White Eagle, Ponca”]“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.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Big Thunder Wabanaki, Algonquin”]“The Great Spirit is in all things. He is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us…..That which we put into the ground she returns to us.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Native American Elder”]“Honor the sacred. Honor the Earth, our Mother. Honor the Elders. Honor all with whom we share the Earth:-Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones, Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people. Walk in balance and beauty.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Lakota Instructions for Living passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman”]“Friend do it this way-that is, whatever you do in life, do the very best you can with both your heart and minds. And if you do it that way, the Power of the Universe will come to your assistance, if you heart and mind are in Unity. When one sits in the Hoop Of The People, one must be responsible because All of Creation ins related. And the Hurt of one is the hurt of all. And the honor of one is the honor of all. And whatever we do effects everything in the universe. If you do it that way-that is, if you truly join your heart and mind as One-whatever you ask for, that the Way it’s Going to be.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Black Elk, Oglala Sioux”]“The Holy Land is everywhere.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chief White Eagle, Ponca Chief”]“Go forward with courage. 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.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Chiksika, Shawnee”]“When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose, it is called a massacre.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sogoyewapha, “Red Jacket,” Seneca”]“Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux Chief”]“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.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Vine Deloria Jr.”]“Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Tamanend”]“Owning land is like owning the ocean, or the air. no one owns land.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Matthew Edward Hall”]“Earth breathes in us.”[/su_quote]

You can learn a lot about a cultural outlook from proverbs, here are some of my favourite Native American Proverbs (wherever possible referring to the specific tribe or cultural group):

[su_quote cite=”Tuscarora Proverb”] They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Hopi Proverb”]All dreams spin out from the same web.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Blackfoot Proverb”]Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Iroquois Proverb”]“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Hopi Proverb”]“The one who tells the stories rules the world.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Lumbee Proverb”] “Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Mohawk”]Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Lakota Sioux”]A man or woman with many children has many homes.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Anishinaabe Proverb”]The heart is your center, being from your center outward.[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Sioux Proverb”] “A people without a history is like the wind over buffalo grass.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Arapaho Proverb”] “If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come. If we never wonder, knowledge will never find us.”[/su_quote]

[su_quote cite=”Apache Proverb”]“It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.”[/su_quote]