18 Quotes by Vine Deloria Jr.

Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who've already been there.

Never has America lost a war ... But name, if you can, the last peace the United States won. Victory yes, but this country has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict. Consider how quickly America seems to be facing its allies of one war as new enemies.

Until America begins to build a moral record in her dealings with the Indian people she should not try to fool the rest of the world about her intentions on other continents. America has always been a militantly imperialistic world power eagerly grasping for economic control over weaker nations.

Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.

This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

To be an Indian in modern American society is in a very real sense to be unreal and ahistorical.

If you want to be sovereign, act sovereign.

Western civilization, unfortunately, does not link knowledge and morality but rather, it connects knowledge and power and makes them equivalent.

The bottom line about the information possessed by non-Western peoples is that the information becomes valid only when offered by a white scholar recognized by the academic establishment; in effect, the color of the skin guarantees scientific objectivity.