"We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; If he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same."

"Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike-brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all."

"Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike - brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people."

"When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals."

"The earth is our mother. She should not be disturbed by hoe or plough. We want only to subsist on what she freely gives us."

"All people should be treated the same way on earth."

"We do not want churches. They will teach us to quarrel about God."

"We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!"

"Big name often stands on small legs."

"The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it."

"The eye tells what the tongue would hide."

"Look twice at a two-faced man."

"It takes few words to tell the truth."

"Good words do not last long unless they amount to something."

"I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me."

"Our chiefs are killed. . . . The little children are freezing to death. . . . My people have no blankets, no food. . . . My heart is sick and sad. . . . I will fight no more forever."

"When an Indian fights, he only shoots to kill."

"I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people."

"I saw that the war could not be prevented. The time had passed."

"I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition."

"We gathered all the stock we could find, and made an attempt to move. We left many of our horses and cattle in Wallowa. We lost several hundred in crossing the river."

"I did not want my people killed. I did not want bloodshed."

"War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war."

"Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all people understand."

"If you don't like someone's story, write your own."

"The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place."

"While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary."

"Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself."

"There is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."

"To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them."

"Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged."

"My weapon is literature"

"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool."

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised."

"If I hold her hand she says, ‘Don’t touch!’ If I hold her foot she says ‘Don’t touch!’ But when I hold her waist-beads she pretends not to know."

"There is no story that is not true."

"When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk"

"If you don't like my story,write your own"

"Nobody can teach me who I am."

"Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings."

"People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories."

"...when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly."

"Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."

"Privilege, you see, is one of the great adversaries of the imagination; it spreads a thick layer of adipose tissue over our sensitivity."

"When Suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool."

"Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!"

"It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair."

"It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning."

"A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk."

"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."