Joseph Bruchac famous quotes

04-17-2025

The best teachers have showed me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly--we only think it does. The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Teacher #Mean #Thinking
The best teachers have shown me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly - we only think it does.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Teacher #Mean #Thinking
It is important to understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world and expressing the wisdom of Native belief...No one voice speaks for all voices...
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Voice #Important #Way
We need to walk to know sacred places, those around us and those within. We need to walk to remember the songs.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Song #Needs #Sacred
There are many people who could claim and learn from their Indian ancestry, but because of the fear their parents and grandparents knew, because of past and present prejudice against Indian people, that part of their heritage is clouded or denied.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Past #People #Grandparent
Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Soldier #Enemy #Pretending
A story is a burden which must be carried with as much care as we carry a sleeping child
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Children #Sleep #Stories
When the Lakota leader Sitting Bull was asked by a white reporter why his people loved and respected him, Sitting Bull replied by asking if it was not true that among white people a man is respected because he has many horses, many houses? When the reporter replied that was indeed true, Sitting Bull then said that his people respected him because he kept nothing for himself.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Horse #Men #White
There is a kind of certainty that seems to characterize Jared Smith's best work, an understanding about place and the flow of spirit that makes you think of Thoreau along with a commitment as fierce as that of Pablo Neruda.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Commitment #Thinking #Make You Think
Do we make ourselves into what we become or is it built into our genes, into the fate spun for us by whatever shapes events?
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Fate #Events #Shapes
As long as we can remember them, our families will always be with us.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Long #Remember #Our Family
Guilt can make you doubt yourself at the very moment when you need to proceed with certainty.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Doubt #Guilt #Needs
Another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of quiet when the fighting has stopped, you know you will soon be fighting again. Those quiet times give you the chance to think about what has happened. Some of it you would rather not think about, as you remember the pain and the sorrow. You also have time to worry about what will happen when you go into battle again.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Pain #War #Fighting
Never think that war is a good thing, grandchildren. Though it may be necessary at times to defend our people, war is a sickness that must be cured. War is a time out of balance. When it is truly over, we must work to restore peace and sacred harmony once again.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#War #Thinking #Grandchildren
If it wasn't for good," my mother says, "we human beings would have been wiped out a long time ago. Either the monsters would have gotten us or we would have killed each other off with greed and jealousy and anger. So we have to believe in good. We have to look for the good in ourselves.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Mother #Believe #Long
Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon.
-- Joseph Bruchac

#Strong #Paper

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