Walt Whitman Quotes
Resist much. Obey little.
When I give, I give myself.
Be curious, not judgmental.
We convince by our presence.
Peace is always beautiful.
I exist as I am, that is enough.
Produce great men, the rest follows.
Do anything, but let it produce joy.
We were together. I forget the rest.
If you done it, it ain't bragging.
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.
I tramp a perpetual journey.
Real war will never get in the books.
Nothing endures but personal qualities.
In the faces of men and women, I see God.
Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.
I accept reality and dare not question it.
I am satisfied ... I see, dance, laugh, sing.
There is no God any more divine than Yourself.
The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.
The future is no more uncertain than the present.
I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.
To have great poets, there must be great audiences.
Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.
All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.
If you want me again look for me under your boot soles.
A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.
The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.
To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
Happiness, not in another place but this place… Not for another hour, but this hour.
Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept time absolutely.
Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines.
There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.
Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.
Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul.
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.
And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.
Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy.
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.
Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.
Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.
Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?
What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life.
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
