Top 15 Walt Whitman Quotes

American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892)

Add quote

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American journalist and poet, most famous for his lifelong work on his book Leaves of Grass.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Birth Name: Walter Whitman

From Wikidata (CC0)

Resist much, obey little.

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

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

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.

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

We were together. I forget the rest.

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.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

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

I am large, I contain multitudes

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

Do anything, but let it produce joy.

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.

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