Walt Whitman Quotes

I accept reality and dare not question it.

O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?

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.

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

I am not contain'd between my hat and boots.

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.

As soon as histories are properly told there is no more need of romances.

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

Where the earth is, we are.

Whoever degrades another degrades me.

When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear.

People who serve you without love get even behind your back.

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.

Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face, We must separate awhileHere! take from my lips this kiss. Whoever you are, I give it especially to you; So long!And I hope we shall meet again.

Clear and sweet is my soul, clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

There is no God any more divine than Yourself.

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.

Dearest comrades, all is over and long gone, But love is not over.

We convince by our presence.

All is procession; the universe is a procession with measured and beautiful motion.

Produce great men, the rest follows.

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.

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.

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.

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.

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

I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

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

I sing the body electric.

I am the man, I suffered, I was there.

Day by day and night by night we were together - all else has long been forgotten by me.

O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.

Americans should know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.

All truths wait in all things,/They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it

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.

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

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game.

Women sit or move to and fro, some old, some young, / The young are beautiful--but the old are more beautiful than the young.

Freedom - to walk free and own no superior.

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

My words itch at your ears till you understand them

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.

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

Forsake all inhibitions, Pursue thy dreams.

We are the greatest power in the world. If we behave like it.

Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body.

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.

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.