Walt Whitman Quotes

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

Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan!

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.As if I were not puzzled at myself!

not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,The hundred & fifty are dumb yet at Alamo.

re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults y...

For we cannot tarry here,We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,We, the youthfu...

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.All seems beautiful to me...

Over the mountain growths, disease and sorrow, An uncaught bird is ever hovering, hovering,High in ...

Great is language . . . . it is the mightiest of the sciences,It is the fulness and color and form a...

O Me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless—of citi...

My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.I have look'd for equals...

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

I swear to you the architects shall appear without fall, I swear to you they will understand you and...

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

When I Read the Book"When I read the book, the biography famous, And is this then (said I) what the ...

One's-Self I Sing One's-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the wo...

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?I see something of God each hour of the twenty-fou...

Come, said my SoulSuch verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)That should I after death i...

Peace is always beautiful.

Of Equality--as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself--as if it were ...

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

WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas’d with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over...

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day ...

Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you? I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by ...

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquesti...

ThoughtOf equality- as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chancesand rights as myself- as if it...

The American bards shall be marked for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors… . T...

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,And accrue what I hear into myself...and let so...

poor boy! I never knew you, Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would...

Note, to-day, an instructive, curious spectacle and conflict. Science, (twin, in its fields, of Demo...

Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.

Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I my...

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for th...

I Think it is lost.....but nothing is ever lost nor can be lost .The body sluggish, aged, cold, the ...

Vivas to those who have fail’d!And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!And to those themselve...

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

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

When I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;...

God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up...

We convince by our presence.

I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about G...

have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood asid...

If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred.

Out of every fruition of success no matter what comes forth something to make a new effort necessa...

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found t...

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

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

The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the ...

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

The port is near the bells I hear the people all exulting While follow eyes the steady keel the ...

It is native personality and that alone that endows a man to stand before presidents or generals ...

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and wat...

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and signi...

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

Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of...

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

O to be self-balanced for contingencies, to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, reb...

I exist as I am that is enough If no other in the world be aware I sit content And if each and a...

We were together. I forget the rest.

To have great poets there must be great audiences too.

I act as the tongue of you,... tied in your mouth . . . . in mine it begins to be loosened.

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

Songs of myselfClear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. Lack one ...

Behold! I do not give lectures on a little charity. When I give I give myself.

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

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

In the faces of men and women I see God and in my own face in the glass I find letters from God dro...

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

Song of myselfA child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer ...

I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete,The earth remains jag...

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

(I know, it's a poem but oh well).Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else...

Mark the spirit of invention everywhere, thy rapid patents, Thy continual workshops, foundries, rise...

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.

Song of myselfI am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise, Regardless of others, ever ...

This the touch of my lips to yours, this the murmur of yearning,   This the far-off depth and height...

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

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, ...

Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love; But now I thi...

Song of MyselfI have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But...

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I loveIf you want me again look for me under yo...

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

Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.

Song of myselfWith music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums, I play not marches for accepte...

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

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles an...

If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.

Silence? What can New York-noisy, roaring, rumbling, tumbling, bustling, story, turbulent New York-h...

I think I could turn and live with animals they are so placid and self-contain'd I stand and look ...

This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to ever...

To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky the ni...

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood asid...

To me, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

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

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,And I have said that the body is not more than t...

Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave let him know he has enough.

The real war will never get in the books.

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

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