Chief Seattle was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with “Doc” Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington, was named after him. Profoundly inspirational Chief Seattle quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.
Famous Chief Seattle Quotes
Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The white man’s God cannot love our people, or He would protect them. – Chief Seattle
Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. – Chief Seattle
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our god is also your god. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. – Chief Seattle
Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money. – Chief Seattle
When the green hills are covered with talking wires and the wolves no longer sing, what good will the money you paid for our land be then – Chief Seattle
Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints! – Chief Seattle
My words are like the stars that never change. – Chief Seattle
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. – Chief Seattle
Our God, the Great Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us. Your God makes your people wax stronger every day. Soon they will fill all the land. – Chief Seattle
Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds. – Chief Seattle
Tribe follows tribe, nations follow nations like the tides of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. – Chief Seattle
Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. – Chief Seattle
I will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame. – Chief Seattle
Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine! He folds his strong protecting arms lovingly about the paleface and leads him by the hand as a father leads an infant son. – Chief Seattle
How can your God become our God and renew our prosperity and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness? – Chief Seattle
To harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. – Chief Seattle
Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors – the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people. – Chief Seattle
Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. – Chief Seattle
There is no such place as away. – Chief Seattle
We are part of the earth and it is part of us … What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. – Chief Seattle
The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things are the same breath – the animals, the trees, the man. – Chief Seattle
The earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. – Chief Seattle
What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pool at night? – Chief Seattle
To us, the ashes of our ancestors are sacred, and their resting place is hallowed ground. – Chief Seattle
Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts. 8. We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us. – Chief Seattle
The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath-the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. – Chief Seattle
The white man’s God cannot love our people, or He would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. How then can we be brothers? – Chief Seattle
The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful Earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the Earth and it is part of us. – Chief Seattle
Your God loves your people and hates mine; he folds his strong arms lovingly around the white man and leads him as a father leads his infant son, but he has forsaken his red children; he makes your people wax strong every day, and soon they will fill the land; while my people are ebbing away like a fast-receding tide, that will never flow again. The white man’s God cannot love his red children, or he would protect them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. – Chief Seattle
We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? – Chief Seattle
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. – Chief Seattle
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children – Chief Seattle
If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. – Chief Seattle
How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people, every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clear and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. – Chief Seattle
We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble and if we keep carrying old grudges and do not work together, we will all die. – Chief Seattle
There is no death, only a change of worlds. – Chief Seattle
All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man… the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. – Chief Seattle
Man belongs to the Earth, Earth does not belong to man – Chief Seattle
All creation is one. What we do to one, we do to the entire web of life. – Chief Seattle
There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect’s wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. – Chief Seattle
When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them. – Chief Seattle
Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. – Chief Seattle
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. – Chief Seattle
Humans merely share the Earth. We can only protect the land, not own it. – Chief Seattle
Like a man who has been dying for many days, a man in your city is numb to the stench. – Chief Seattle
The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. – Chief Seattle
Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun. – Chief Seattle
Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus, it has ever been. – Chief Seattle
When the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among the white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. – Chief Seattle
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? – Chief Seattle
My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. – Chief Seattle
Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better. – Chief Seattle
The whites, too, shall pass – perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you might suffocate in your own waste. – Chief Seattle
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. – Chief Seattle
What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. – Chief Seattle
Earth does not belong to us; we belong to earth. – Chief Seattle
Every door opened others. The records show some interesting encounters with a very complicated community on the ship with a complicated community ashore. – Chief Seattle
