Walt Whitman Quotes

Resist much. Obey little.

Walt Whitman

When I give, I give myself. 

Walt Whitman

Be curious, not judgmental. 

Walt Whitman

We convince by our presence. 

Walt Whitman

Peace is always beautiful.

Walt Whitman

I exist as I am, that is enough. 

Walt Whitman

Produce great men, the rest follows.

Walt Whitman

Do anything, but let it produce joy.

Walt Whitman

We were together. I forget the rest.

Walt Whitman

If you done it, it ain't bragging.

Walt Whitman

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth. 

Walt Whitman

I tramp a perpetual journey.

Walt Whitman

Real war will never get in the books. 

Walt Whitman

Nothing endures but personal qualities. 

Walt Whitman

In the faces of men and women, I see God.

Walt Whitman

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death. 

Walt Whitman

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

Walt Whitman

I accept reality and dare not question it.

Walt Whitman

I am satisfied ... I see, dance, laugh, sing. 

Walt Whitman

There is no God any more divine than Yourself.

Walt Whitman

The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

Walt Whitman

If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred. 

Walt Whitman

The future is no more uncertain than the present. 

Walt Whitman

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough. 

Walt Whitman

To have great poets, there must be great audiences. 

Walt Whitman

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

Walt Whitman

All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. 

Walt Whitman

If you want me again look for me under your boot soles. 

Walt Whitman

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

Walt Whitman

The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything. 

Walt Whitman

To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. 

Walt Whitman


Walt Whitman Happiness Quote: Happiness, not in another place but this place ...

Happiness, not in another place but this place… Not for another hour, but this hour.

Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass: Carol of Occupations 1855-1892)

Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept time absolutely. 

Walt Whitman

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.

Walt Whitman

To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle. 

Walt Whitman

From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines.

Walt Whitman

There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe. 

Walt Whitman

Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.

Walt Whitman

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. 

Walt Whitman

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. 

Walt Whitman

And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death. 

Walt Whitman

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. 

Walt Whitman


Walt Whitman Quote - What is it that you express in your eyes, it seems...

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 (Leaves of Grass: Song of Myself, 1855-1892)

The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.

Walt Whitman

Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul. 

Walt Whitman

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. 

Walt Whitman

Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.

Walt Whitman

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero. 

Walt Whitman

Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy. 

Walt Whitman

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

Walt Whitman

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. 

Walt Whitman

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. 

Walt Whitman

The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.

Walt Whitman

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me. 

Walt Whitman

Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me. 

Walt Whitman

Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? 

Walt Whitman

What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life.

Walt Whitman

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud. 

Walt Whitman

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

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

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

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

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

I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as it did before, Or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep.

Walt Whitman

I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers. 

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

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


Walt Whitman Quote - I celebrate myself, and sing myself...

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

Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then? 

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

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

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

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. 
One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself, 
And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, 
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait.

Walt Whitman

This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.

Walt Whitman

O captain! My Captain! 
Our fearful trip is done. 
The ship has weather'd every wrack 
The prize we sought is won 
The port is near, the bells I hear 
The people all exulting 
While follow eyes, the steady keel 
The vessel grim and daring 
But Heart! Heart! Heart! 
O the bleeding drops of red 
Where on the deck my captain lies 
Fallen cold and dead.

Walt Whitman (O Captain! My Captain Poem: Dedication to Abe Lincoln)

Walt Whitman Biography

Born: May 31, 1819
Died: March 26, 1892

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist.
He is one of the most influential American poets and is often called the father of free verse.

Notable Works

Franklin Evans (1842)
Leaves of Grass
(1855)
Drum-Taps
(1865)
Democratic Vistas (1871)
Memoranda During the War
Specimen Days

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