Walt Whitman

“Most works are most beautiful without ornament.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost;.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I love doctors and hate their medicine.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The question, O me! so sad, recurring – What good amid these, O me, O life? That you are here – that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean But I shall be good health to you nonetheless And filter and fibre your blood.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I speak the password primeval; I give the sign of democracy.” ~ Walt Whitman

“What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics, of hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains?” ~ Walt Whitman

“The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies, It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess’d them.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The eager and often inconsiderate appeals of reformers and revolutionists are indispensable to counterbalance the inertia and fossilism marking so large a part of human institutions.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Be not dishearten’d – Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet; Those who love each other shall become invincible.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All truths wait in all things.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I dote on myself. There is a lot of me and all so luscious.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am the man, I suffered, I was there.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Clear and sweet is my soul, clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed; I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold, And I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation.” ~ Walt Whitman

“You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, or even vagueness – ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The earth does not argue, Is not pathetic, has no arrangements, Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise, Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Day full-blown and splendid-day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter, The Night follows close with millions of suns, and sleep and restoring darkness.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I and this mystery, here we stand.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Produce great men, the rest follows.” ~ Walt Whitman

“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“If you done it, it ain’t bragging.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Peace is always beautiful.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last!” ~ Walt Whitman

“The real war will never get in the books.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Me imperturbe, standing at ease in nature.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Strong and content I travel the open road.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well entretied, braced in the beams, Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical, I and this mystery here we stand.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Sail Forth- Steer for the deep waters only. Reckless O soul, exploring. I with thee and thou with me. For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared go. And we will risk the ship, ourselves, and all.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Are you the new person drawn toward me?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Like a stone dropped into a pond, an article of that sort may spread out its concentric circles of consequences.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O Pioneers!” ~ Walt Whitman

“The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. In the history of the earth hitherto the largest and most stirring appear tame and orderly to their ampler largeness and stir. Here at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadcast doings of the day and night. Here is not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations. Here is action untied from strings, necessarily blind to particulars and details, magnificently moving in vast masses.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep, but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And that my Soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding; And haze, and vista, and the far horizon, fading away.” ~ Walt Whitman

“What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion’s sake.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The smallest sprout shows there is really no death. And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it.” ~ Walt Whitman

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean.” ~ Walt Whitman

“These are the days that must happen to you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.” ~ Walt Whitman

“What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior?” ~ Walt Whitman

“The jour printer with gray head and gaunt jaws works at his case, He turns his quid of tobacco, while his eyes blur with the manuscript.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Dismiss whatever insults your soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware, I sit content, And if each and all be aware, I sit content.” ~ Walt Whitman

“When I undertake to tell the best, I find I cannot. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, My breath will not be obedient to its organs, I become a dumb man.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I tramp a perpetual journey.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep for the dead I loved so well.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A woman waits for me, she contains all, nothing lacking.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The strongest and sweetest song remains to be sung.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth – but all is truth without exception; And henceforth I will go celebrate any thing I see or am, And sing and laugh and deny nothing.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I wear my hat as I please, indoors or out.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large – I contain multitudes.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Wisdom is not finally tested by the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?” ~ Walt Whitman

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A great poem is no finish to a man or woman but rather a beginning.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Camden was originally an accident, but I shall never be sorry I was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?” ~ Walt Whitman

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The past, the future, majesty, love – if they are vacant of you, you are vacant of them.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A woman waits for me, she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.” ~ Walt Whitman

“In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” ~ Walt Whitman

“This is what you should do; love the Earth and sun and the animals…” ~ Walt Whitman

“We consider bibles and religions divine I do not say they are not divine. I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still. It is not they who give the life, it is you who give the life.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O the joy of my spirit – it is uncaged – it darts like lightning!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Long enough have you dream’d contemptible dreams, Now I wash the gum from your eyes, You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.” ~ Walt Whitman

“He sees eternity in men and women, he does not see men and women as dreams or dots.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“When the materials are ready, the architects shall appear.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All is procession; the universe is a procession with measured and beautiful motion.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her that it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.” ~ Walt Whitman

“It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy – government has no such office.” ~ Walt Whitman

“How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Do you guess I have some intricate purpose? Well I have, for the Fourth-month showers have, and the mica on the side of a rock has.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Thought Of equality- as if it harm’d me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself- as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Americans should know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” ~ Walt Whitman

“From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not discouraged – keep on – there are divine things, well envelop’d; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Their Presidents shall not be their common referee so much as their poets shall.” ~ Walt Whitman

“It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Of all mankind the great poet is the equable man. Not in him but off from him things are grotesque or eccentric or fail of their sanity.” ~ Walt Whitman

“If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes – but is that all?” ~ Walt Whitman

“God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The ecstasy is so short but the forgetting is so long.” ~ Walt Whitman

“We were together. I forget the rest.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Whoever you are, motion and reflection are especially for you, The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Slang, too, is the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language, by which froth and specks are thrown up, mostly to pass away; though occasionally to settle and permanently chrystallize.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The truth is simple. If it was complicated, everyone would understand it.” ~ Walt Whitman

“That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again and ever again, this soiled world.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Come lovely and soothing death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later, delicate death.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am he that walks with the tender and growing night; I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night. Press close barebosomed night! Press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! Night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! Mad naked summer night! Smile.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them, And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Those who love each other shall become invincible.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Have you not learned the most in your life from those with whom you disagreed – those who saw it differently from you?” ~ Walt Whitman

“The beautiful uncut hair of graves.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The art of art, the glory of expression, is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity, and the sunlight of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity-nothing can make up for excess, or for the lack of definiteness.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Charity and personal force are the only investments worth anything.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Oh, to be alive in such an age, when miracles are everywhere, and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy, of greater marvels yet to be.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.” ~ Walt Whitman

“To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim – the rocks – the motion of the waves – the ships, with men in them, what stranger miracles are there?” ~ Walt Whitman

“I think I could always live with animals. The more you’re around people, the more you love animals.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Hurrah for positive science! long live exact demonstration!” ~ Walt Whitman

“O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! My South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!” ~ Walt Whitman

“O amazement of things-even the least particle!” ~ Walt Whitman

“The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him – it cannot fail.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I do not think seventy years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that seventy millions of years is the time of a man or woman, Nor that years will ever stop the existence of me, or any one else.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I accept Reality and dare not question it, Materialism first and last imbuing.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Praised be the fathomless universe, for life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious.” ~ Walt Whitman

“From this hour, freedom! Going where I like, my own master…” ~ Walt Whitman

“Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now; And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me. The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose. Henceforth, I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune. Henceforth, I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer…” ~ Walt Whitman

“We all have great things on our bucket lists like skydiving, seeing the Northern Lights etc, but what about simply falling in love? Isn’t that the most amazing thing we can do?” ~ Walt Whitman

“The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Oh captain my captain.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O to be self-balanced for contingencies, to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God – I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The past and the present wilt. I have fill’d them, emptied them, And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me, if I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Agonies are one of my changes of garments.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future, And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turned to beautiful results.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Either define the moment or the moment will define you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The young are beautiful – but the old are more beautiful than the young.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Do you see O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death, it is form, union, plan, it is eternal life, it is happiness.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I sing the body that is electric! I celebrate the Self yet to be unveiled!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?” ~ Walt Whitman

“You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, not look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books. You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, you shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I accept Time absolutely. It alone is without flaw, It alone rounds and completes all, That mystic baffling wonder.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Love, that is day and night – love, that is sun and moon and stars, Love, that is crimson, sumptuous, sick with perfume, no other words but words of love, no other thought but love.” ~ Walt Whitman

“No dainty dolce affettuoso I.” ~ Walt Whitman

“You want to know a sure way to lose money? Buy what’s popular and don’t know what you are investing in.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Day by day and night by night we were together – all else has long been forgotten by me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O lands! O all so dear to me – what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I accept reality and dare not question it.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse. He who does great deeds, does them from his innate sensitiveness to moral beauty.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The road to wisdom is paved with excess. The mark of a true writer is their ability to mystify the familiar and familiarize the strange.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I loafe and invite my soul.” ~ Walt Whitman

“To me, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I hate commas in the wrong places.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow because most full of love.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The best writing has no lace on its sleeves.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Forsake all inhibitions, Pursue thy dreams.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I exist as I am, that is enough.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The most affluent man is he that confronts all the shows he sees by equivalents out of the stronger wealth of himself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Everybody is writing, writing, writing – worst of all, writing poetry. It’d be better if the whole tribe of the scribblers – every damned one of us – were sent off somewhere with tool chests to do some honest work.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primal sanities!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Loafe with me on the grass – loose the stop from your throat; Not words, not music or rhyme I want – not custom or lecture, not even the best; Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.” ~ Walt Whitman

“In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection.” ~ Walt Whitman

“TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward resumes its liberty.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable.” ~ Walt Whitman

“To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I have no mockings or arguments; I witness and wait.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Now understand me well. It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.” ~ Walt Whitman

“We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Great is the faith of the flush of knowledge and of the investigation of the depths of qualities and things.” ~ Walt Whitman

“When one reaches out to help another he touches the face of God.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Shut not your doors to me proud libraries.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Old age: The estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours into the Great Sea.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The future is no more uncertain than the present.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Re examine all you have been told in school and in church Or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul and your very flesh shall be a great poem.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I keep thinking about you every few minutes all day.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I will You, in all, Myself, with promise to never desert you, To which I sign my name.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Every hour of every day is an unspeakably perfect miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Long have you timidly waded Holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, Rise again, nod to me, shout, And laughingly dash with your hair.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The moon gives you light, and the bugles and the drums give you music, and my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I lean and loaf at my ease… observing a spear of summer grass.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her shall I follow.” ~ Walt Whitman

“An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation.” ~ Walt Whitman

“You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here, I believe much unseen is also here.” ~ Walt Whitman

“And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone, But love is not over…” ~ Walt Whitman

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“In the faces of men and women, I see God.” ~ Walt Whitman

“All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Nothing endures but personal qualities.” ~ Walt Whitman

“So here I sit in the early candle-light of old age-I and my book-casting backward glances over out travel’d road.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Resist much, obey little.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy. It lays its hand upon a man’s bowels; he grows drunk with ecstasy; he grows young and full of glory, he feels that he can never die.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Give me such shows – give me the streets of Manhattan!” ~ Walt Whitman

“To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Whoever degrades another degrades me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he looked upon, that object he became…” ~ Walt Whitman

“Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Liberty is to be subserved, whatever occurs.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?” ~ Walt Whitman

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.” ~ Walt Whitman

“He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.” ~ Walt Whitman

“My ties and ballasts leave me – I travel – I sail – My elbows rest in the sea-gaps. I skirt the sierras. My palms cover continents – I am afoot with my vision.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Be curious, not judgmental.” ~ Walt Whitman

“What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires – how many aspirations after goodness and truth – how many noble thoughts, loving wishes toward our fellows, beautiful imaginings thou hast crushed under thy heel, without remorse or pause!” ~ Walt Whitman

“Each of us inevitable; Each of us limitless-each of us with his or her right upon the earth.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I dance with the dancers.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am not contain’d between my hat and boots.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Unscrew the locks from the doors ! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs !” ~ Walt Whitman

“The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.” ~ Walt Whitman

“If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O baffled, baulked, bent to the very earth, Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my mouth, Aware now that, amid all the blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my insolent poems, the real ME stands yet untouched, untold, altogether unreached, Withdrawn.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am large, I contain multitudes.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Now I see that there is no such thing as love unreturn’d. The pay is certain, one way or another.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I sing the body electric.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The Past – the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf – the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?” ~ Walt Whitman

“Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman

“In all people I see myself – none more, and not one a barleycorn less; And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation: The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer, I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky.” ~ Walt Whitman

“When I give, I give myself.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Over all the sky – the sky! Far, far out of reach, studded with eternal stars.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of a man.” ~ Walt Whitman

“To drive free, to love free, to court destruction with taunts, to feed the remainder of life with one hour of fullness and freedom – one brief hour of madness and joy.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long.” ~ Walt Whitman

“To have great poets, there must be great audiences.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Simplicity is the glory of expression.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Beginning my studies the first step pleas’d me so much, The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion, The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love, The first step I say awed me and pleas’d me so much, I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther, But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.” ~ Walt Whitman

“We convince by our presence.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I will not descend among professors and capitalists.” ~ Walt Whitman

“O the joy of my spirit – it is uncaged – it darts like lightning! It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time, I will have thousands of globes and all time.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I like the scientific spirit-the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine-it always keeps the way beyond open.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Now I will do nothing but listen to accrue what I hear into this song. To let sounds contribute toward it. I hear the sound I love. The sound of the human voice. I hear all sounds running together.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Life doesn’t give You the people you want, It gives you The people you need: To love you, To hate you, To make you, To break you, And to make you the person you Were meant to be.” ~ Walt Whitman

“The sum of all known value and respect, I add up in you, whoever you are.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I conn’d old times, I sat studying at the feet of the great masters, Now if eligible O that the great masters might return and study me.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy.” ~ Walt Whitman

“I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love.” ~ Walt Whitman

“For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!” ~ Walt Whitman

“A man can be a hero in any profession.” ~ Walt Whitman

“My words itch at your ears till you understand them.” ~ Walt Whitman

“A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity; but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Youth, large, lusty, loving – Youth, full of grace, force, fascination. Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?” ~ Walt Whitman