Quotes by Whitman, Walt

"To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier."

Whitman, Walt on death   

"Nothing can happen more beautiful than death."

Whitman, Walt on death
3 fans of this quote   

"There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius."

Whitman, Walt on education   

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

Whitman, Walt on enemies
10 fans of this quote   

"Produce great men, the rest follows."

Whitman, Walt on example   

"This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat."

Whitman, Walt on faces   

"Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)"

Whitman, Walt on festivals   

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

Whitman, Walt on flowers   

"Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune."

Whitman, Walt on fortune   

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

Whitman, Walt on frankness   

"Freedom -- to walk free and own no superior."

Whitman, Walt on freedom   

"Camerado, I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?"

Whitman, Walt on friends and friendship   

"Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death."

Whitman, Walt on age and aging   

"Their manners, speech, dress, friendships, -- the freshness and candor of their physiognomy -- the picturesque looseness of their carriage -- their deathless attachment to freedom -- their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean -- the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states -- the fierceness of their roused resentment -- their curiosity and welcome of novelty -- their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy -- their susceptibility to a slight -- the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors -- the fluency of their speech -- their delight in music, a sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul -- their good temper and open-handedness -- the terrible significance of their elections, the President's taking off his hat to them, not they to him -- these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it."

Whitman, Walt on america   

"When I give I give myself."

Whitman, Walt on giving
5 fans of this quote   

"In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name. And I leave them where they are, for I know that wherever I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever."

Whitman, Walt on god   

"The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual."

Whitman, Walt on humankind   

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

Whitman, Walt on independence   

"Be curious, not judgmental."

Whitman, Walt on judgment and judges   

"O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is."

Whitman, Walt on land   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on language   

"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?"

Whitman, Walt on learning
3 fans of this quote   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on liberty   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on life
5 fans of this quote   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on animals   

"How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!"

Whitman, Walt on argument   

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

Whitman, Walt on army and navy   

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself."

Whitman, Walt on loneliness
5 fans of this quote   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on losers and losing   

"To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all."

Whitman, Walt on manners   

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"Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history. Sometimes I think in all departments, literature and art included, that will be the way our superiority will exhibit itself. We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great."

Whitman, Walt on masses   

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

Whitman, Walt on miracles   

"To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle."

Whitman, Walt on miracles   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on nature   

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

Whitman, Walt on nature   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on night   

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

Whitman, Walt on obesity   

"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."

Whitman, Walt on opposites   

"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."

Whitman, Walt on art   

"The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?"

Whitman, Walt on past