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Walt Whitman Quotes | Quotes said by Walt Whitman

  • Walt Whitman Quote #1

    (I know, it's a poem but oh well).
    Why! who makes much of a miracle?
    As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
    Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
    Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
    Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the
    water,
    Or stand under trees in the woods,
    Or talk by day with any one I love--or sleep in the bed at night with
    any one I love,
    Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
    Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
    Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon,
    Or animals feeding in the fields,
    Or birds--or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
    Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down--or of stars shining so quiet
    and bright,
    Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring;
    Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best--
    mechanics, boatmen, farmers,
    Or among the savans--or to the soiree--or to the opera,
    Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
    Or behold children at their sports,
    Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old
    woman,
    Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,
    Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;
    These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
    The whole referring--yet each distinct, and in its place.

    To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
    Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
    Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the
    same,
    Every foot of the interior swarms with the same;
    Every spear of grass--the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women,
    and all that concerns them,
    All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.

    To me the sea is a continual miracle;
    The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships,
    with men in them,
    What stranger miracles are there?

  • Walt Whitman Quote #2

    He is a type of our best — our rarest. Electrical, I was going to say, beyond anyone, perhaps, ever was: charged, surcharged. Not a founder of new philosophies — not of that build. But a towering magnetic presence, filling the air about with light, warmth, inspiration. A great intellect, penetrating, in ways (on his field) the best of our time — to be long kept, cherished, passed on... It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is 'Leaves of Grass.' He lives, embodies, the individuality I preach. 'Leaves of Grass' utters individuality, the most extreme, uncompromising. I see in Bob the noblest specimen —American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving, demanding light.

    {Whitman's thought on his good friend, the great Robert Ingersoll}

  • Walt Whitman Quote #3

    Paine was a grand fellow — high—with the most splendid sense of justice. But he was a reasoner — not warm — not letting out the natural palpitating passion... which perhaps he didn't have. But I see all that and more in Ingersoll. His imagination flames and plays up, up, up. It is a grand height! And he has so sharp a blade, too; is many-sided, gifted for great effects in different spheres. I don't suppose we ever had a man here so well adapted to that work.

    {Whitman's thought on Thomas Paine and his good friend, Robert Ingersoll}

  • Walt Whitman Quote #4

    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.

    I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green
    stuff woven.

    Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
    A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
    Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see
    and remark, and say Whose?

    Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the
    vegetation.

    Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
    And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
    Growing among black folks as among white,
    Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I
    receive them the same.

    And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

    Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
    It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
    It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
    It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out
    of their mothers' laps,
    And here you are the mothers' laps.

    This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
    Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
    Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

    O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
    And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for
    nothing.

    ...

    What do you think has become of the young and old men?
    And what do you think has become of the women and children?

    They are alive and well somewhere,
    The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
    And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the
    end to arrest it,
    And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.

    All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
    And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #5

    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.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #6

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

  • Walt Whitman Quote #7

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

  • Walt Whitman Quote #8

    Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road.
    Healthy, free, the world before me.
    The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose.
    Henceforth, I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune.
    Henceforth, I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #9

    After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #10

    All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
    And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #11

    America doesn't know today how proud she ought to be of her Ingersoll.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #12

    And I or you pocketless of a dime, may purchase the pick of the earth.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #13

    And now it [grass] seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves,

    Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
    It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
    It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
    It may be you from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their
    mother's laps,
    And here you are the mothers' laps.

    - Song of Myself: 6

  • Walt Whitman Quote #14

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

  • Walt Whitman Quote #15

    And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #16

    Argue not concerning God,…re-examine all that you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your soul…

  • Walt Whitman Quote #17

    Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #18

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

  • Walt Whitman Quote #19

    Come I should like to hear you tell me what there is in yourself that is not just as wonderful,
    And I should like to hear the name of anything between Sunday morning and Saturday night that is not just as wonderful.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #20

    Copulation is no more foul to me than death is.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #21

    Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #22

    For we cannot tarry here,
    We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
    We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!

  • Walt Whitman Quote #23

    Freedom - to walk free and own no superior.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #24

    Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard.

    [Give me the splendid silent sun]

  • Walt Whitman Quote #25

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

  • Walt Whitman Quote #26

    Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan!

  • Walt Whitman Quote #27

    God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #28

    Great is language . . . . it is the mightiest of the sciences,
    It is the fulness and color and form and diversity of the earth . . . . and of men and women . . . . and of all qualities and processes;
    It is greater than wealth . . . . it is greater than buildings or ships or religions or paintings or music.

  • Walt Whitman Quote #29

    have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

  • Walt Whitman Quote #30

    Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
    Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
    Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

    Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
    You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
    You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
    You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
    You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

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