Quotes from Walt Whitman

Oh, to be alive in such an age, when miracles are everywhere, and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy, of greater marvels yet to be.

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

Clear and sweet is my soul, clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

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

I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again / I am to see to it that I do not lose you

The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.

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.)

Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself.

Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?

Agonies are one of my changes of garments.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward resumes its liberty.

Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.

Unscrew the locks from the doors ! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs !

Be not dishearten'd -- Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet; Those who love each other shall become invincible.

A blade of grass is the journeywork of the stars

And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future, And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to beautiful results, And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death, And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are compact, And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.

When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me by the hand, … Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further, I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity beyond the grave, But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied, He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves, As souls only understand souls.

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

You have not known what you are--you have slumber'd upon yourself all your life; Your eye-lids have been the same as closed most of the time; What you have done returns already in mockeries; Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return? The mockeries are not you; Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk;