Walt Whitman Quotes

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.”

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

“I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.”

“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,
And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait.”

“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

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

“Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.”

“The powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the 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 toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the 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 book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

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

“We were together. I forget the rest.”

“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.”

“Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”

“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

“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.”

“Peace is always beautiful.”

“Resist much, obey little.”

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for.”