Quotes by Kent Nerburn

It does not require many words to speak the truth
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce

You want to know how to be like indians?  Live close to the earth.  Get rid of some of your things.  Help each other.  Talk to the creator.  Be quiet more.  Listen to the earth instead of building things on it all the time.

… Good leaders wait to be called and they give up their power when they are no longer needed.  Selfish men and fools put themselves first and keep their power until someone throws them out.  It is no good to have a way where selfish men and fools fight with each other to be leaders, while the good ones watch.

"We are weak," Dan said. "We are weak for alcohol.  Just like white people are weak for owning things."  He turned to me.  "But those weaknesses are gifts, just like our strengths are gifts.  Weaknesses make us strong, because they make us stand up to ourselves."

When you are here, you are here.  When you are gone, you are gone.  It isn't a problem to be gone, so long as you are really here when you're here.

It is not easy for a man to be as great as a mountain or a forest.  But that is why the creator gave them to us as teachers.  Now that I am old I Iook once more toward them for lessons, instead of trying to understand the ways of men. They tell me to be patient.  They tell me I cannot change what is, I can only hope to change what will become.  Let the grasses grow over our scars, they say, and let flowers bloom over our wounds.

You need to understand this.  We did not think we owned the land.  The land was part of us.  We didn't even know about owning the land.  It is like talking about owning your grandmother - you can't own your grandmother.  She just is your grandmother.  Why would you talk about owning her?

We are born male.  We must learn to be men.  Remember, strength is a force.  It is an attribute of the heart.  Its opposite is not weakness and fear, but confusion, lack of clarity, and lack of sound intention.  If you are able to discern the path with heart and follow it even when at the moment it seems wrong, then and only then are you strong.  Remember the words of Tao te ching.  "The only true strength is a strength that people do not fear."  Strength based in force is a strength people fear.  Strength based in love is a strength people crave.

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character.  It is easy, we think, to be loyal to family and clan, whose blood is in our own veins.  Love between man and woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self seeking.  But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!

Do not grieve.  Misfortune will happen to the wisest and best of men.  Death will come, always out of season.  It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey.  What is past and cannot be prevented should not be grieved for… Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives - they grow everywhere.  Big Elk - Omaha Chief