You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.

Therefore, I do not wish to consider any proposition to cede any portion of our tribal holdings to the Great Father.

This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path.

What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.

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!

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place.

The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?

What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.

The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.

I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.

Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.

I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.

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 from us also.

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.

In my early days, I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly.

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.

What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and left me unfed? Who has seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken?

It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.

I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.

What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.

I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief.

He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart, he put other different desires.

Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children's mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean.

They want us to give up another chunk of our tribal land. This is not the first time or the last time.

God made me an Indian.

There are things they tell us that sound good to hear, but when they have accomplished their purpose they will go home and will not try to fulfill our agreements with them.

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors even to our animal neighbors the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

The meat of the buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.

A good businessman never makes a contract unless he's sure he can carry it through, yet every fool on earth is perfectly willing to sign a marriage contract without considering whether he can live up to it or not.

The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Anyone who works is a fool. I don't work - I merely inflict myself upon the public.

A fool often fails because he thinks what is difficult is easy.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.