Quotes from Walt Whitman

The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.

There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.

A woman waits for me, she contains all, nothing lacking.

We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right.

Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood? Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.

Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.

If you done it, it ain't bragging.

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

I am satisfied ... I see, dance, laugh, sing.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

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.

I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

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.

Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness. All seems beautiful to me. Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me; Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.

The real war will never get in the books.

I tramp a perpetual journey.

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

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

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

If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good help to you nevertheless And filter and fiber your blood. Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop some where waiting for you

Argue not concerning God,…re-examine all that you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your soul…