Sitting Bull > Quotes

“Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”
― Sitting Bull

“It does not take many words to tell the truth”
― Sitting Bull

“Behold, the Spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!

Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.

Yet, hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race – small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.

They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. The nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all that are in its path.

We cannot dwell side by side. Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that away from us. My brothers, shall we submit or shall we say to them: 'First kill me before you take possession of my land”
― Sitting Bull

“The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.”
― Sitting Bull

“What treaties that the whites have kept, that the red man broken?
Not one.
What treaties that the white man gave to us they kept?
Not one.”
― Sitting Bull

“Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.”
― Sitting Bull

“They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. That nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path. We cannot dwell side by side.”
― Sitting Bull

“I want you to go and tell the Great Father that I do not want to sell any land to the government... (He picked up a piece of dust and added) not even so much as this.”
― Sitting Bull

“Un guerrier n'est pas ce que vous croyez. Ce n'est pas quelqu'un qui part faire la guerre pour prendre la vie des autres.
Pour nous un guerrier c'est quelqu'un qui sacrifie tout de lui pour le bien-être des autres.
Il protège et prend soin des aînés, de ceux qui sont sans défense, de ceux qui ne peuvent le faire pour eux-mêmes et par dessus tout les enfants qui sont le futur de notre humanité.”
― Sitting Bull

“They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it.”
― Sitting Bull

“Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.”
― Sitting Bull

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!”
― Sitting Bull

“What does it matter how I pray, so long as my prayers are answered?”
― Sitting Bull

“Now we are poor but we are free.”
― Sitting Bull

“They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.”
― Sitting Bull

“If we must die, we die defending our rights.”
― Sitting Bull