Walt Whitman famous quotes

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

#Encouragement #Get Well #Soul

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

#Inspirational #Positive #Happiness

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspirational #Life #Dark

To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.
-- Walt Whitman

#Dark #Positivity #Space

Be curious, not judgmental.
-- Walt Whitman

#Life #Meaningful #Judging

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

#Inspiration #Giving #Littles

I exist as I am, that is enough.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspiration #Enough

Be not ashamed women, ... You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.
-- Walt Whitman

#Women #Soul #Body

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

#Life #Men #Faces

Simplicity is the glory of expression.
-- Walt Whitman

#Simple #Expression #Simplicity

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.
-- Walt Whitman

#Spiritual #Truth #Soul

We were together. I forget the rest.
-- Walt Whitman

#Love #Funny #Together

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

#Spiritual #Wisdom #Integrity

Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between people, and their beliefs - in religion, literature, colleges and schools- democracy in all public and private life...
-- Walt Whitman

#Party #Flower #School

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

#Limits #Lines #Hours

Either define the moment or the moment will define you.
-- Walt Whitman

#Moments #Define You

Each of us inevitable; Each of us limitless-each of us with his or her right upon the earth.
-- Walt Whitman

#Earth #Limitless #Individual

I accept reality and dare not question it.
-- Walt Whitman

#Reality #Accepting #Dare

Resist much, obey little.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspirational #Life #Beautiful

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

#Country #Poet #Proof

Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find."
-- Walt Whitman

#Sail

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

#Inspirational #Life #Change

Long enough have you dream'd contemptible dreams, Now I wash the gum from your eyes, You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life
-- Walt Whitman

#Dream #Eye #Light

All truths wait in all things, They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it, They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon, The insignificant is as big to me as any, (What is less or more than a touch)...
-- Walt Whitman

#Waiting #Needs #Bigs

We convince by our presence.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspirational #Life #Time

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

#Beauty #Nature #Morning

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspirational #Done #Captains

Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning - I am surely far different from what you suppose; Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction? Do you think I am trusty and faithful? Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me? Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man? Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
-- Walt Whitman

#Real #Men #Thinking

I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.
-- Walt Whitman

#Laughing #Doubt #Reincarnation

There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy. It lays its hand upon a man's bowels; he grows drunk with ecstasy; he grows young and full of glory, he feels that he can never die.
-- Walt Whitman

#New York #Pride #Men

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

#Lying #Heart #Eye

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

#Believe #Enemy #Doubt

I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.
-- Walt Whitman

#Mistake #Usual

If you done it, it ain't bragging.
-- Walt Whitman

#Conceited #Done #Bragging

Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.
-- Walt Whitman

#Thinking Of You #Sunshine #Squares

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.
-- Walt Whitman

#Want #Earth #Constellations

These are the days that must happen to you.
-- Walt Whitman

#Life

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.
-- Walt Whitman

#Joy #Madness #Hours

Produce great men, the rest follows.
-- Walt Whitman

#Leadership #Men #Example

Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primal sanities!
-- Walt Whitman

#Giving #Solitude #Sanity

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

#Love #Night #Long

The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.
-- Walt Whitman

#Individual #Theory #Universe

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

#Beauty #4th Of July #Independence

Nothing endures but personal qualities.
-- Walt Whitman

#Endurance #Quality #Endure

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

#Life #Powerful #Slave

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

#Nature #Sleep #Air

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.
-- Walt Whitman

#College #America #People

Long have you timidly waded Holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, Rise again, nod to me, shout, And laughingly dash with your hair.
-- Walt Whitman

#Hair #Sea #Long

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

#Nature #Stars #Believe

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.
-- Walt Whitman

#Karma #Attitude #Positive Thinking

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
-- Walt Whitman

#Flesh

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

#Perfect #May #Faults

I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election.
-- Walt Whitman

#Exercise #Past #Digestion

A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.
-- Walt Whitman

#Men #Soul #Infinite

Dismiss whatever insults your soul.
-- Walt Whitman

#Soul #Insult #Your Soul

I and this mystery, here we stand.
-- Walt Whitman

#Mystery

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.
-- Walt Whitman

#Shows #Smallest

I am an acme of things accomplished, and I am an encloser of things to be.
-- Walt Whitman

#Accomplished

Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others... And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
-- Walt Whitman

#Love #Inspirational #Crazy

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings, Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love, With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard, With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, A sprig with its flower I break.
-- Walt Whitman

#Strong #Flower #Heart

Wisdom is not finally tested by the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.
-- Walt Whitman

#Wisdom #School #Soul

I refuse putting from me the best that I am.
-- Walt Whitman

#Refuse

Whoever degrades another degrades me.
-- Walt Whitman

#Degradation

Every hour of every day is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
-- Walt Whitman

#Perfect #Miracle #Hours

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.
-- Walt Whitman

#Fall #Judging #Judgement

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems
-- Walt Whitman

#Night #Day And Night #This Day

The art of art... is simplicity.
-- Walt Whitman

#Art #Artist #Simplicity

Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.
-- Walt Whitman

#Happiness #Nature #Carpe Diem

Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.
-- Walt Whitman

#Light #World #Vices

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

#Land #Water #Self Reliance

I sing the body electric.
-- Walt Whitman

#Body #Electric

O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last!
-- Walt Whitman

#Space #Air #Lasts

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.
-- Walt Whitman

#Self Esteem #Goodness #Esteem

The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night, Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation: The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen closer, I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky.
-- Walt Whitman

#Night #Sky #Purpose

The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him - it cannot fail
-- Walt Whitman

#Failing #Giver

With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums, I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for conquer'd and slain persons. 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 beat and pound for the dead, I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
-- Walt Whitman

#Strong #Fall #Blow

Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.
-- Walt Whitman

#Grieving #Waiting #Missing

The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
-- Walt Whitman

#America #United States #States

The truth is simple. If it was complicated, everyone would understand it.
-- Walt Whitman

#Truth #Simple #Complicated

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

#Sticks #Obesity #Bones

When I give, I give myself.
-- Walt Whitman

#Dance #Helping Others #Giving

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

#Sympathy #Funeral #Walks

Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.
-- Walt Whitman

#Communication #Race #Growth

If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspiring #Sacred #Body

I love doctors and hate their medicine.
-- Walt Whitman

#Hate #Medicine #Doctors

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
-- Walt Whitman

#Beautiful #Death #Dying

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

#Sports #Baseball #Games

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

#Life #Women #Cities

NOT I - NOT ANYONE else, can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.
-- Walt Whitman

#Travel

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
-- Walt Whitman

#Miracle #Feelings #Tag

The future is no more uncertain than the present.
-- Walt Whitman

#Inspirational #Life #Future

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

#Happiness #Art #Sunshine

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms, Strong and content I travel the open road.
-- Walt Whitman

#Travel #Strong #Library

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

#Love #Travel #Tourism

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?
-- Walt Whitman

#Lessons #Passages

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

#Country #Tyrants #People

I hate commas in the wrong places.
-- Walt Whitman

#Hate #Writing #I Hate

The best writing has no lace on its sleeves.
-- Walt Whitman

#Writing #Lace #Sleeves

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

#Inspirational #Self Esteem #Self Respect

Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
-- Walt Whitman

#Battle #Spirit #Lost