Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul. - Walt Whitman
I have said that the soul is not more than the body,And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is, - Walt Whitman
Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself. - Walt Whitman
The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book. - Walt Whitman
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves? - Walt Whitman
What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. - Walt Whitman
Songs of myselfClear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn. - Walt Whitman
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes. - Walt Whitman
You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin , or even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things. - Walt Whitman
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. - Walt Whitman
There is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero. - Walt Whitman
Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune. - Walt Whitman
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. - Walt Whitman
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. - Walt Whitman
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
I exist as I am, that is enough,If no other in the world be aware I sit content,And if each and all be aware I sit content.One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself. - Walt Whitman
Nothing endures but personal qualities. - Walt Whitman
The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give. - Walt Whitman
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. - Walt Whitman
I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. - Walt Whitman
And your very flesh shall be a great poem. - Walt Whitman
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 - Walt Whitman
Sail Forth- Steer for the deep waters only. Reckless O soul, exploring. I with thee and thou with me. For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared go. And we will risk the ship, ourselves, and all. - Walt Whitman
I exist as I am, that is enough. - Walt Whitman
All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. - Walt Whitman
Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. - Walt Whitman
I have learned that to be with those I like is enough - Walt Whitman
This is the city, and I am one of the citizens/Whatever interests the rest interests me - Walt Whitman
Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her that it is just as lucky to die, and I know it. - Walt Whitman
Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you? - Walt Whitman
Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people. - Walt Whitman
Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? - Walt Whitman
I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. - Walt Whitman
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… - Walt Whitman
O to be self-balanced for contingencies, to confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, as the trees and animals do. - Walt Whitman
I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God - I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least. - Walt Whitman
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
If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred. - Walt Whitman
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) - Walt Whitman
How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed! - Walt Whitman
Wisdom is not finally tested in 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
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. - Walt Whitman
Oh captain my captain - Walt Whitman
I act as the tongue of you,... tied in your mouth . . . . in mine it begins to be loosened. - Walt Whitman
God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards. - Walt Whitman
Vivas to those who have fail’d!And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!And to those themselves who sank in the sea!And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes!And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known! - Walt Whitman
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth. - Walt Whitman
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough. - Walt Whitman
What stays with you longest and deepest? Of curious panics, of hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains? - Walt Whitman
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. - Walt Whitman
The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. - Walt Whitman
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling. - Walt Whitman
The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it. - Walt Whitman
If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred. - Walt Whitman
To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all. - Walt Whitman
Either define the moment or the moment will define you. - Walt Whitman
Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch. - Walt Whitman
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
Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love; But now I think there is no unreturn'd love—the pay is certain, one way or another; (I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return'd; Yet out of that, I have written these songs.) - Walt Whitman
This day before dawn I ascended a hill and looked at the crowded heaven. - Walt Whitman
You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things. - Walt Whitman
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. - Walt Whitman
O the joy of my spirit--it is uncaged--it darts like lightning!It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time,I will have thousands of globes and all time. - Walt Whitman
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I loveIf you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.You will hardly know who I am or what I meanBut I shall be good health to you nonethelessAnd filter and fibre your blood. - Walt Whitman
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. - Walt Whitman
I celebrate myself, and sing myself. - Walt Whitman
A great city is that which has the greatest men and women. - Walt Whitman
What is it that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life. - Walt Whitman
Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us. - Walt Whitman