A good nation I will make live.

Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions.

It’s in the darkness of men’s eyes that they get lost.

I stood upon the highest mountain of the world and I knew more than I saw, I understood more than I knew, because I was seeing in a sacred manner. And what I saw were the hoops of all the nations interlocking in on great circle.

And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

You have noticed that the truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. When people are already in despair, maybe the laughing face is better for them; and when they feel too good and are too sure of being safe, maybe the weeping face is better for them to see.

They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear’s uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.

I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead – and that one was myself.

So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.

The fear that was on me so long was gone, and when thunder clouds appeared I was always glad to see them, for they came as relatives now to visit me.