Oren Lyons Quotes

#1. We wonder, how do you instruct seven billion people as to the relationship to the Earth? Because unless they understand that, and relate the way they should be, the future is pretty dim for the human species.

Oren Lyons

#2. Man sometimes thinks he's been elevated to be the controller, the ruler, but he's not. He's only part of the whole. Man's job is not to exploit, but to oversee, to be a steward. Man has responsibility, not power.

Oren Lyons

#3. Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life.

Oren Lyons

#4. If you don't have a moral question governing your society, then you don't have a society that is going to survive.

Oren Lyons

#5. We have to get back to the spiritual law if we are to survive.

Oren Lyons

#6. The law says if you poison the water, you'll die. The law says that if you poison the air, you'll suffer. The law says if you degrade where you live, you'll suffer ... If you don't learn that, you can only suffer. There's no discussion with this law.

Oren Lyons

#7. When we walk upon Mother Earth,
we always plant our feet carefully
because we know the faces of our future generations
are looking up at us from beneath the ground.
we never forget them.

Oren Lyons

#8. * We can still alter our course. It is NOT too late. We still have options. We need the courage to change our values to the regeneration of our families, the life that surrounds us.

Oren Lyons

#9. All things are bound together, all things connect. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls also the children of the earth.

Oren Lyons

#10. When you talk about Lacrosse, you talk about the lifeblood of the six nations. The game is ingrained into our culture and our system and our lives. (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora)

Oren Lyons

#11. What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth by whatever means? The Earth goes nowhere. And in time, it will regenerate. There may not be people, but the Earth will regenerate. And you know why? Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don't.

Oren Lyons

#12. Even through you and I are in different boats, you in your boat and we our canoe, we share the same river of life. What befalls me befalls you. And downstream, downstream in this river of life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision.

Oren Lyons

#13. The young generation can influence their elders and can make them understand the environmental problems that are faced by us today. The youth can make them see that our environment is deteriorating day by day.

Oren Lyons

#14. In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred - everything is for sale.

Oren Lyons

#15. What you people call your natural resources our people call our relatives

Oren Lyons

#16. Life will go on as long as there is someone to sing, to dance, to tell stories and to listen.

Oren Lyons

#17. If you do not have a moral question in your governing process, then you do not have a process that is going to survive.

Oren Lyons

#18. When you look at where team sports are going, the National Football League is turning into organized warfare.

Oren Lyons

#19. Times change but principles don't.
Times change but lands do not.
Times change but our culture and
our language remain the same.
And that's what you have to keep intact.
It's not what you wear - it's what's in your heart.

Oren Lyons

#20. Science can point out dangers, but science cannot turn the direction of minds and hearts. That is the province of spiritual powers within and without our very beginnings-powers that are the mysteries of life itself.

Oren Lyons

#21. We've got to think now, in real terms, for that seventh generation . . . We've got to get back to spiritual law if we are to survive.

Oren Lyons

#22. The environment isn't over here. The environment isn't over there. You are the environment.

Oren Lyons

#23. If you have a clean environment, you will have a healthy atmosphere. This will make you happy and your happiness will bring joy to your parents and it will affect the community, too. Then there will be peace of mind to one and all.

Oren Lyons