Native American proverbs (1)

It's impossible to awaken a man who is pretending to be asleep.Navajo

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

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

Listening to a liar is like drinking warm water.tribe unknown

Many have fallen with the bottle in their hand.Lakota

What the people believe is true. Anishinabe

There is no death, only a change of worlds.Duwamish

Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark.Cheyenne

It is easy to be brave from a distance.Omaha

A brave man dies but once, a coward many times.Iowa

The rain falls on the just and the unjust.Hopi

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Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.tribe unknown

Man has responsibility, not power.Tuscarora

Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.Blackfoot

Listen or your tongue will keep you deaf.tribe unknown

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.Minquass

Every animal knows more than you do.Nez Perce

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

After dark all cats are leopards. Zuni

Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant.Kiowa

Sharing and giving are the ways of God.Sauk

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.Dakota

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One rain does not make a crop. Creole

A rocky vineyard does not need a prayer, but a pick ax.Navajo

When a fox walks lame, the old rabbit jumps.Oklahoma

A starving man will eat with the wolf.Oklahoma

There is nothing as eloquent as a rattlesnake's tail.Navajo

The one who tells the stories rules the world.Hopi

The moon is not shamed by the barking of dogs.Southwest

Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.Blackfoot

We are all one child spinning through Mother Sky.Shawnee

Each person is his own judge. Shawnee

All dreams spin out from the same web.Hopi