Walt Whitman quotes

Born
May 31, 1819 West Hills, New York, U.S.

Died
March 26, 1892.

Occupation
Poet.

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
– Walt Whitman

To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
– Walt Whitman

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
– Walt Whitman

Be curious, not judgmental.
– Walt Whitman

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
– Walt Whitman

I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game.
– Walt Whitman

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
– Walt Whitman

I exist as I am, that is enough.
– Walt Whitman

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.
– Walt Whitman

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.
– Walt Whitman

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.
– Walt Whitman

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends.
– Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
– Walt Whitman

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
– Walt Whitman

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.
– Walt Whitman

Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
– Walt Whitman

To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
– Walt Whitman

The beautiful uncut hair of graves.
– Walt Whitman

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

Re-examine all that you have been told… dismiss that which insults your soul.
– Walt Whitman

Produce great men, the rest follows.
– Walt Whitman

Nothing endures but personal qualities.
– Walt Whitman

Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely.
– Walt Whitman

I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as it did before, Or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep.
– Walt Whitman

If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.
– Walt Whitman

I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
– Walt Whitman

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
– Walt Whitman

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
– Walt Whitman

Simplicity is the glory of expression.
– Walt Whitman

When I give I give myself.
– Walt Whitman

The future is no more uncertain than the present.
– Walt Whitman

I accept reality and dare not question it.
– Walt Whitman

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
– Walt Whitman

The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves.
– Walt Whitman

Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
– Walt Whitman

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
– Walt Whitman

And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
– Walt Whitman

Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people.
– Walt Whitman