16 Quotes by Joseph M. Marshall III

It is true that wealth buys power and influence, but it does not buy morality, or kindness, or compassion. The pursuit of wealth can blind us to the fact that all of us, rich or poor, can be generous with our time, love, kindness, and compassion. Those virtues, and many more, we can all have in unlimited supply.

Humility was a virtue that the Lakota of old expected their leaders to possess. A quiet, humble person, we believed, was aware of other people and other things. An arrogant, boastful man was only aware of himself. Interestingly, our methods of selecting leaders today seem to favor the arrogant and boastful.

What you are comes from the blood of those who set you on this journey. That is likewise unchangeable. What you see in the reflecting pool of truth is who you are. You cannot change that, so it is wise not to curse it. The wiser choice is to embrace it and make it your strength.

Bravery is a requisite virtue because life demands it.

A mounted buffalo chase was one of the most exciting things a man could do. There was always the risk of injury and death, but having once hunted buffalo from the back of a horse, no man could resist trying it over and over again. It was one thing to wait in ambush along a trail for black-tailed or white-tailed deer or at a waterhole for the white-bellied pronghorn, but chasing buffalo was the pursuit of life itself, testing one’s nerves and skills to the limit as fast as a horse could run.

In the end, wisdom is born of weakness as well as strength.

And as the old men warned, power does not listen with honest ears to the whispers of the powerless.