Praying Indians

Famous quotes containing the words praying indians, praying and/or indians:

    What journeyings on foot and on horseback through the wilderness, to preach the gospel to these minks and muskrats! who first, no doubt, listened with their red ears out of a natural hospitality and courtesy, and afterward from curiosity or even interest, till at length there “were praying Indians,” and, as the General Court wrote to Cromwell, the “work is brought to this perfection that some of the Indians themselves can pray and prophesy in a comfortable manner.”
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I’m not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    The ferryman had told us that all the best Indians were gone except Polis, who was one of the aristocracy.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)