Soul Would Have No Rainbow if the Eyes Had No Tears and Other Native American Proverbs - Softcover

Zona, Guy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671797301 ISBN 13: 9780671797300

Publisher: Touchstone, 1994

Synopsis

A collection of short and inspirational Native American proverbs.

Sayings of time-honored truth and contemporary wisdom from the Native American tribes:

Why will you take by force what you may obtain by love?
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
He who serves his fellows is the greatest of all.
If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can be as gentle as a dove.
The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
A sin against a neighbor is an offense against the Great Spirit.

Soul Would Have No Rainbow if the Eyes Had No Tears contains these and many more beautiful proverbs for guidance in life.

About this title

About the Author

Guy A. Zona lives in Clearwater, Florida.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

With all things and in all things, we are relatives.

(SIOUX)

Stand in the light when you want to speak out.

(CROW)

Life is both giving and receiving.

(MOHAWK)

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.

(TRIBE UNKNOWN)

All children of Earth will be welcome at our council fires.

(SENECA)

Good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company.

(DELAWARE)

Know that we are eager to share our gifts, in the name of love.

(SENECA)

He who is present at a wrongdoing and does not lift a hand to prevent it is as guilty as the wrongdoers.

(OMAHA)

Give me knowledge, so I may have kindness for all.

(PLAINS INDIAN)

Treachery darkens the chain of friendship, but truth makes it brighter than ever.

(CONESTOGA)

Before eating, always take a little time to thank the food.

(ARAPAHO)

Speak the truth in humility to all people. Only then can you be a true man.

(SIOUX)

Truth does not happen, it just is.

(HOPI)

Sin is not allowed in God's tepee.

(MOHAWK)

Lying is a great shame.

(SIOUX)

Stolen food never satisfies hunger.

(OMAHA)

Thoughts are like arrows: once released, they strike their mark. Guard them well or one day you may be your own victim.

(NAVAJO)

Respect the gift and the giver.

(OMAHA)

Give your host a little something when you leave; little presents are little courtesies and never offend.

(SENECA)

I love a people who do not live for the love of money.

(DUWAMISH)

When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.

(ARAPAHO)

It is less of a problem to be poor than to be dishonest.

(ANISHINABE)

Even when we lay down, we lay down on our own path of life.

(PAWNEE)

A good man does not take what belongs to someone else.

(PUEBLO)

Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered from the heart.

(OMAHA)

Judge not by the eye but by the heart.

(CHEYENNE)

Easy money breeds indolence.

(ARAPAHO)

Be kind to everything that lives.

(OMAHA)

No one else can represent your conscience.

(ANISHINABE)

To gossip is like playing checkers with an evil spirit: you win occasionally but are more often trapped at your own game.

(HOPI)

The rain falls on the just and the unjust.

(HOPI)

Do not speak of evil for it creates curiosity in the hearts of the young.

(LAKOTA)

Let no one speak ill of the absent.

(HOPI)

Those who have one foot in the canoe and one foot in the boat are going to fall into the river.

(TUSCARORA)

Always assume your guest is tired, cold, and hungry, and act accordingly.

(NAVAHO)

Love one another and do not strive for another's undoing.

(SENECA)

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.

(DAKOTA)

Never sit while your seniors stand.

(CREE)

Even as you desire good treatment, so render it.

(SENECA)

Who serves his fellows is of all the greatest.

(DAKOTA)

If you dig a pit for me, you dig one for yourself.

(CREOLE)

Listening to a liar is like drinking warm water.

(TRIBE UNKNOWN)

An angry word is like striking with a knife.

(HOPI)

Each person is his own judge.

(PIMA)

Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins.

(NORTHERN CHEYENNE)

One foe is too many and a hundred friends too few.

(HOPI)

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not he that you wrong but yourself.

(PIMA)

Many have fallen with the bottle in their hand.

(LAKOTA)

When a man prays one day and steals six, the Great Spirit thunders and the Evil One laughs.

(OKLAHOMA)

Trouble follows sin as surely as fever follows chill.

(HOPI)

Let your eyes be offended by the sight of lying and deceitful men.

(HOPI)

The more you give, the more good things come to you.

(CROW)

Never interfere in a person's decisions about what he will do with his possessions.

(HOPI)

The lazy man is apt to be envious.

(OMAHA)

Man's law changes with his understanding of man. Only the laws of the spirit remain always the same.

(CROW)

What the people believe is true.

(ANISHINABE)

The Great Spirit has made us what we are: it is not his will that we should be changed. If it was his will, he would let us know; if it is not his will, it would be wrong for us to attempt it, nor could we, by any art, change our nature.

(SENECA)

Let your nature be known and proclaimed.

(HURON)

When a favor is shown to a white man, he feels it in his head and the tongue speaks out; when a kindness is shown to an Indian, he feels it in his heart and the heart has no tongue.

(SHOSHONE)

Our pleasures are shallow, our sorrows are deep.

(CHEYENNE)

The song is very short because we understand so much.

(NAVAJO)

I have been to the end of the earth. I have been to the end of the waters. I have been to the end of the sky. I have been to the end of the mountains. I have found none that are not my friends.

(NAVAJO)

Copyright © 1994 by Guy A. Zona

Edition details

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0671797301
• ISBN 13: 9780671797300
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128