Luther Standing Bear

We learned to feel beauty

Luther Standing Bear | July-August 2015 (Vol. XXVIII, No. 7)

Knowledge was inherent in all things.
The world was a library and its books
Were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks...
We learned to do what only the students
of nature ever learn, that was to feel beauty.

~ Luther Standing Bear

Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner

Luther Standing Bear | May 2003 (Vol. XVI, No. 5)

Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and their granting a space of silence to the speech-makers and their own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness, listening, and regard for the rule, "thought comes before speech."

~ from NATIVE AMERICAN WISDOM by Luther Standing Bear
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