Walt Whitman Quotes

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

Walt Whitman

Inspirational, Positive, Happiness

Walt Whitman, The Secret Libraries (2016). “Walt Whitman Quotes... Vol. 20: Motivational and Inspirational Life Quotes by Walt Whitman”

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Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

Walt Whitman

Night, Soul, Logic

Walt Whitman (2009). “The Americanness of Walt Whitman”, p.21, Wildside Press LLC

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Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.

Walt Whitman

Happiness, Nature, Carpe Diem

Walt Whitman, Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett (2008). “Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856”, p.97, NYU Press

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This is what you should do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone 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 toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.

Walt Whitman

Stupid, Hate, Crazy

354 Copy quote
Either define the moment or the moment will define you.

Walt Whitman

Moments, Define You

338 Copy quote
We were together. I forget the rest.

Walt Whitman

Love, Funny, Romantic

352 Copy quote
Every hour of every day is an unspeakably perfect miracle.

Walt Whitman

Perfect, Miracle, Hours

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As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under the trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love,
Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon...
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,
Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring...
What stranger miracles are there?

Walt Whitman

Summer, Beach, Stars

Walt Whitman, “Miracles”

201 Copy quote
The truth is simple. If it was complicated, everyone would understand it.

Walt Whitman

Truth, Simple, Complicated

161 Copy quote
When one reaches out to help another he touches the face of God.

Walt Whitman

Teacher, Faces, Helping

162 Copy quote
Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul.

Walt Whitman

Spiritual, Wisdom, Integrity

"Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not discouraged - keep on - there are divine things, well envelop'd; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

Walt Whitman

Beautiful, Nature, Rude

Walt Whitman, Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett (2008). “Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856”, p.232, NYU Press

205 Copy quote
Be curious, not judgmental.

Walt Whitman

Life, Meaningful, Judging

Walt Whitman, The Secret Libraries (2016). “Walt Whitman Quotes... Vol. 20: Motivational and Inspirational Life Quotes by Walt Whitman”

221 Copy quote
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

Walt Whitman (2013). “Walt Whitman's Song of Myself: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition”, p.189, Routledge

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The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.

Walt Whitman

Writing, Worry, Waiting

69 Copy quote
Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by regular contact with outdoor growths - animals, trees, sun warmth and free skies - or it will dwindle and pale.

Walt Whitman

Animal, Sky, America

259 Copy quote
I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell

Walt Whitman

Beautiful, Spiritual, Leaves Of Grass

Walt Whitman, Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett (2008). “Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856”, p.232, NYU Press

67 Copy quote
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

Walt Whitman

Inspirational, Life, Change

"Song of Myself " l. 1324 (written 1855)

116 Copy quote
Simplicity is the glory of expression.

Walt Whitman

Simple, Expression, Simplicity

"Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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

Walt Whitman

Animal, Thinking, People

Walt Whitman (2013). “Walt Whitman's Song of Myself: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition”, p.169, Routledge

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

Walt Whitman

Failing, Giver

Walt Whitman “Annotated LEAVES OF GRASS with English Grammar Exercises: by Walt Whitman (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)”, Powell Publications, LLC

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I dream in my dreams all the dreams of the other dreamers.
And I become the other dreamers.

Walt Whitman

Dream, Dreamer

Walt Whitman (1855). “Leaves of Grass”, p.71

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I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars, And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, And the tree toad is a chef-d'oeurve for the highest, And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven, And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery, And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue, And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels!

Walt Whitman

Running, Depressing, Stars

Walt Whitman, “Song Of Myself, XXXI”

72 Copy quote
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

Walt Whitman

Spiritual, Truth, Soul

Walt Whitman, Floyd Stovall (2007). “Prose Works 1892, Volume II: Collect and Other Prose”, p.748, NYU Press

99 Copy quote
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me. The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose. Henceforth, I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune. Henceforth, I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing.

Walt Whitman

Light, Long, Healthy

'Song of the Open Road' 1, l. 1

152 Copy quote

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Walt Whitman

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Born: May 31, 1819
Died: March 26, 1892
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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