“The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop.”

—  Black Elk

Source: Black Elk Speaks (1961), Ch. 17 : The First Cure
Context: Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 3, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees wer…" by Black Elk?
Black Elk photo
Black Elk 42
Oglala Lakota leader 1863–1950

Related quotes

Black Elk photo

“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.”

Black Elk (1863–1950) Oglala Lakota leader

Source: Black Elk Speaks (1961), Ch. 17 : The First Cure
Context: Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

Sarvajna photo
Laurell K. Hamilton photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Circles, like the soul, are neverending and turn round and round without a stop”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

This adage had previously appeared, identically worded, in Coleridge's The Statesman's Manual (1816)
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Circles

Black Elk photo

“Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.”

Black Elk (1863–1950) Oglala Lakota leader

Source: Black Elk Speaks (1961), Ch. 17 : The First Cure
Context: Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop.

Thomas Moore photo

“There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream,
And the nightingale sings round it all the day long;
In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream,
To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Part II.
Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan

“But from the hoop’s bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound.”

Edward Moore (1712–1757) English dramatist and writer

The Spider and the Bee. Fable x.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi photo

“The circle of knowledge commences close round a man and thence stretches out concentrically.”

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer

Evening Hour of a Hermit (1780)

Henry Adams photo
Joachim Peiper photo

“History is always written by the victor and histories of the vanquished belong to a shrinking circle of those who were there.”

Joachim Peiper (1915–1976) SS officer

Parker, Hitler's Warrior, chapter 19, citing Peiper to Karl Wortmann, November 28, 1974 in note 27.

Related topics