Wilma Mankiller Quotes

Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.

When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.

The prophet who would succeed among the Iroquois must speak in ancient tongues, he must use the old words, and he must relate his program to the old ways. He is a conservator at the same time he is a reformer. All of the Iroquois reformers have been traditionalists. This is one of the reasons that Iroquois culture has endured so long.

The greatest guarantee for the preservation of a person’s identity is language and faith, and all Armenians must carry these two values.

It is of the essence of traditions that they cover or conceal their humble foundations by erecting impressive edifices on them.

I like places that have history in the sense of - you feel responsible to it.

Retaining culture takes effort and persistence and discipline. It's a commitment, not a flag. You can't just pull it out and wave it about when it's convenient.

The only way we'll know where we're going is to look at the past and to remember who we were through ceremonies and rituals.

Cambodia is not only a country of war, but also a country of culture. It's in our DNA.

In our own case, we don't consider the loss of a monastery or a monument the end of our entire way of life. If one monastery is destroyed, sometimes it happens.

As soon as tradition has come to be recognized as tradition, it is dead.

My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

I think the history and the past we have is just an energy we've built up to do what we do now.

We've got to know our history. We have to be able to bring our children to a place that they can be proud of.

Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past.

I like traditions, and the national anthem is important.

In America nothing dies easier than tradition.

I say it is indispensable to look ahead of and behind oneself in the present. If there is such a thing as tradition, and I believe there is, it can only exist in the sense of the most profound movements of culture.

I go to South Dakota for ceremonies when I have the time. And when you learn what the Indian peoples have gone through to hold onto their culture and traditions... wow, it's an amazing story.

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.

Tradition is the illusion of permanance.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.