Walt Whitman Quotes

Out of every fruition of success no matter what comes forth something to make a new effort necessary.
Walt Whitman
I loafe and invite my soul I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
Walt Whitman
The art of art the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity: nothing is better than simplicity.
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
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself I am large I contain multitudes.
Walt Whitman
I am as bad as the worst but thank God I am as good as the best.
Walt Whitman
Nothing endures but personal qualities.
Walt Whitman
To have great poets there must be great audiences too.
Walt Whitman
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
Walt Whitman
Nothing endures but personal qualities.
Walt Whitman
To have great poets there must be great audiences too.
Walt Whitman
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
Walt Whitman
The port is near the bells I hear the people all exulting While follow eyes the steady keel the vessel grim and daring But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red Where on the deck my captain lies Fallen cold and dead.
Walt Whitman
Language is not an abstract construction of the learned or of dictionary-makers but is something arising out of the work needs ties joys affections tastes of long generations of humanity and has its bases broad and low close to the ground.
Walt Whitman
Behold! I do not give lectures on a little charity. When I give I give myself.
Walt Whitman
In the faces of men and women I see God.
Walt Whitman
In the faces of men and women I see God and in my own face in the glass I find letters from God dropt in the street and every one is signed by God's name and I leave them where they are for I know that wheresoever I go others will punctually come for ever and ever.
Walt Whitman
Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity When I give I give myself.
Walt Whitman
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave let him know he has enough.
Walt Whitman
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky the night I mourn'd - and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
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
The future is no more uncertain than the present.
Walt Whitman
Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
Walt Whitman
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself (I am large I contain multitudes).
Walt Whitman
It is native personality and that alone that endows a man to stand before presidents or generals or in any distinguished collection with aplomb -and not culture or any intellect whatever.
Walt Whitman
The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.
Walt Whitman
Camerado this is no book. Who touches this touches a man.
Walt Whitman
If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred.
Walt Whitman
I think I could turn and live with animals they are so placid and self-contain'd I stand and look at them long and long They do not sweat and whine about their condition They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God Not one is dissatisfied not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that liveth thousands of years ago Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Walt Whitman
Song of myselfI am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise, Regardless of others, ever regardful of others, Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine, One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same, A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and hospitable down by the Oconee I live, A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth, A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian, A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye; At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen off Newfoundland, At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking, At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the Texan ranch, Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving their big proportions,) Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands and welcome to drink and meat, A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest, A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons, Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion, A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker, Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest. I resist any thing better than my own diversity, Breathe the air but leave plenty after me, And am not stuck up, and am in my place.
Walt Whitman
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orc
Walt Whitman
I visit the orchards of God and look at the spheric productAnd look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green.
Walt Whitman
Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan!
Walt Whitman
Silence? What can New York-noisy, roaring, rumbling, tumbling, bustling, story, turbulent New York-have to do with silence? Amid the universal clatter, the incessant din of business, the all swallowing vortex of the great money whirlpool-who has any, even distant, idea of the profound repose......of silence?
Walt Whitman
I swear to you the architects shall appear without fall, I swear to you they will understand you and justify you, The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all and is faithful to all, He and the rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive that you are not an iota less than they, You shall be fully glorified in them.
Walt Whitman
I see great things in baseball.
Walt Whitman
Re-examine all that you have been told, dismiss that which insults your soul.
Walt Whitman
To me, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.
Walt Whitman
(I know, it's a poem but oh well).Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love--or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at table at dinner with my mother, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds--or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down--or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring; Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best-- mechanics, boatmen, farmers, Or among the savans--or to the soiree--or to the opera, Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery, Or behold children at their sports, Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman, Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial, Or my own eyes and figure in the glass; These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring--yet each distinct, and in its place.To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, Every foot of the interior swarms with the same; Every spear of grass--the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that concerns them, All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.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
We were together. I forget the rest.
Walt Whitman
One's-Self I Sing One's-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing.
Walt Whitman
I do not say these things for a dollar, or to fill up the time while I wait for a boat;
Walt Whitman
The American bards shall be marked for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors… . The great poets are also to be known by the absence in them of tricks and by the justification of perfect personal candor… . How beautiful is candor! All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.
Walt Whitman
WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas’d with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over;t I stand apart to hear—it never tires me.t To you, your name also;t Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?
Walt Whitman
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.
Walt Whitman
Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, magnetic, nourishing Night!Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night!from Strophe 21, "Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
Mark the spirit of invention everywhere, thy rapid patents, Thy continual workshops, foundries, risen or rising, See, from their chimneys how the tall flame-fires stream.
Walt Whitman
ThoughtOf equality- as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chancesand rights as myself- as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same.
Walt Whitman
They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago.
Walt Whitman
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d, I stand and look at them long and long.They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Walt Whitman
When I Read the Book"When I read the book, the biography famous, And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life? And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? (As if any man really knew aught of my life,Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
Walt Whitman
Oh captain my captain
Walt Whitman
Urge and urge and urge,Always the procreant urge of the world.
Walt Whitman
This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the 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 toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the 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 book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
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
If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.
Walt Whitman
I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you, None has understood you, but I understand you, None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself, None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in you, None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you, I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
Walt Whitman
And now it [grass] seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves, Tenderly will I use you curling grass,It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, It may be you from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps, And here you are the mothers'
Walt Whitman
O you youths, Western youths,So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,Pioneers! O pioneers!
Walt Whitman
Over the mountain growths, disease and sorrow,t An uncaught bird is ever hovering, hovering,High in the purer, happier air.
Walt Whitman