It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.
Interpretation
The quote expresses disappointment and sorrow over unfulfilled promises and the pain of remembered good intentions.
Chief Joseph's quote highlights the emotional turmoil experienced when reflecting on the gap between genuine intentions and the reality of broken promises. It reveals the deep hurt that can arise in relationships, emphasizing the importance of trust and honesty in human connections. The remembrance of 'good words' suggests that while intentions may have been positive, the lack of follow-through leads to a sense of betrayal and loss.
In practice
This quote can be used in a heartfelt speech about trust in relationships.
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself β and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.
If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow.
The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.
All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.
Our chiefs are killed. . . . The little children are freezing to death. . . . My people have no blankets, no food. . . . My heart is sick and sad. . . . I will fight no more forever.
For time and eternity there have been fathers like Nathan who simply can see no way to have a daughter but to own her like a plot of land. To work her, plow her under, rain down a dreadful poison upon her. Miraculously, it causes these girls to grow. They elongate on the pale slender stalks of their longing, like sunflowers with heavy heads. You can shield them with your body and soul, trying to absorb that awful rain, but they'll still move toward him. Without cease they'll bend to his light.
It's not beauty but fine qualities, my girl, that keep a husband.
Find fault when you must find fault in private, and if possible sometime after the offense, rather than at the time.
No one likes to feel that he or she is being sold some-thing or told to do a thing. We much prefer to feel that we are buying of our own accord or acting on our own ideas. We like to be consulted about our wishes, our wants, our thoughts.
In order to raise money from somebody, you have to understand who is this person, not to deceive them but to understand them. What would be their motives for contributing money? Why do these people contribute money to some places, but not to others? That's attunement - treating everybody well, but not treating everybody the same.
I want to talk to her. I want to have lunch with her. I want her to give me a book she just read and loved. She is my phantom limb, and I just canβt believe Iβm here without her.β- on losing her best friend
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