When I was a young man, I was poor. In a war with other nations, I was in eighty-seven fights. There I received my name and was made Chief of my nation. But now I am old and am for peace.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the journey from conflict to peace and the wisdom gained with age.
Red Cloud's quote emphasizes the transformation from a youth engaged in battles and strife to an elder who values peace and leadership. It illustrates the lessons learned through conflict and the desire for harmony that often comes with age and experience.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about conflict resolution.
I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
The Great Spirit will not make me suffer because I am ignorant. He will put me in a place where I shall be better off than in this world.
We were told that they wished merely to pass through our country. . . to seek for gold in the far west . . . Yet before the ashes of the council are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. . . . His presence here is . . . an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be allowed for corn?
Look at me. I was a warrior on this land where the sun rises, now I come from where the sun sets. Whose voice was first surrounded on this land - the red people with bows and arrows. The Great Father says he is good and kind to us. I can't see it.
Part of my job is to make sense of all that I hear, and to retell it in a forceful way so that the decision-makers at Treasury can hear it. At least that's how I see it.
A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.
Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it.
There are times when even the best manager is like the little boy with the big dog, waiting to see where the dog wants to go so he can take him there.
The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management!
Be men and women with others and for others: true champions at the service of others.
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