Charles Eastman Quotes

Charles Eastman

Profession : Author

Birth : February 19, 1858

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.

Charles Eastman

There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in itself mysterious and holy.

Charles Eastman

Nearness to nature... keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt and in touch with the unseen powers.

Charles Eastman

The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

Charles Eastman

But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!

Charles Eastman

The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity.

Charles Eastman

It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization, and that of our women was secure. In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood.

Charles Eastman

The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.

Charles Eastman

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.

Charles Eastman

No one who is at all acquainted with the Indian in his home can deny that we are a polite people.

Charles Eastman

More than this, even in those white men who professed religion we found much inconsistency of conduct. They spoke much of spiritual things, while seeking only the material.

Charles Eastman

The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.

Charles Eastman

The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character.

Charles Eastman

At the age of about eight years, if he is a boy, she turns him over to his father for more Spartan training.

Charles Eastman

He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's.

Charles Eastman

Every act of his life is, in a very real sense, a religious act.

Charles Eastman

The Indian was a religious man from his mother's womb.

Charles Eastman

The hospitality of the wigwam is only limited by the institution of war.

Charles Eastman

The clan is nothing more than a larger family, with its patriarchal chief as the natural head, and the union of several clans by intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe.

Charles Eastman

Among us all men were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity.

Charles Eastman