Walt Whitman Quotes

The boy I love, the same becomes a man not through derived power but in his own right,
Wicked, rather than virtuous out of conformity or fear,
Fond of his sweetheart, relishing well his steak,
Unrequited love or a slight cutting him worse than a wound cuts,
First rate to ride, to fight, to hit the bull's eye, to sail a skiff, to sing a song or play on the banjo,
Preferring scars and faces pitted with smallpox over all latherers and those that keep out the sun.

Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and all times all over the earth?

Slang, too, is the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language, by which froth and specks are thrown up, mostly to pass away; though occasionally to settle and permanently chrystallize.

I dote on myself...there is that lot
of me, and all so luscious.
Each moment and whatever happens
thrills me with joy.

"Though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not."

- from "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing"

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

The new rule shall rule as the soul rules, and as the love and justice and equality that are in the soul rule.

Ah the dead to me mar not, they fit well in Nature,
They fit very well in the landscape under the trees and grass,
And along the edge of the sky in the horizon's far margin.

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

Poets to Come

POETS to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me, and answer what I am for;
But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,
Arouse! Arouse
for you must justify me
you must answer.

I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.

I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully stopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.

Ezen a napon, ó, Lélek, csodás tükröt adok neked;
Sokáig hevert a sötétben, piszokban és ködben – De a köd eloszlott, vaksága eltűnt;
…Nézd csak, ó, Lélek! tiszta és ragyogó ez a tükör,
Híven mutatja neked a világ minden dolgát.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

The young are beautiful — but the old are more beautiful than the young.

Say on, sayers! sing on, singers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on, age after age, nothing is to be lost, It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use, When the materials are all prepared and ready, the architects shall appear.

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