A List of Famous Walt Whitman Quotes By Reference

A list of quotes from Walt Whitman. Here are the best Walt Whitman quotes on various subjects. The Walt Whitman quotations list is alphabetical but can be sorted by any column. Enjoy these sayings coined by Walt Whitman. You can use this fact-based list to create a new list, re-rank it to fit your views, then publish it.

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Order Name Author Subjects

1

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

Walt Whitman

Cities and City Life
2

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

Walt Whitman

Flower
3

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

Nature
4

All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.

Walt Whitman

Frankness
5

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.

Walt Whitman

Professions and Professionals
6

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

Walt Whitman

Sympathy
7

Be curious, not judgmental.

Walt Whitman

Judgment and Judges
8

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

Walt Whitman

Self-sacrifice
9

Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man.

Walt Whitman

Books and Reading
10

Camerado, I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?

Walt Whitman

Friends and Friendship
11

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

Walt Whitman

Contradiction
12

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

Walt Whitman

Opposites
13

Freedom -- to walk free and own no superior.

Walt Whitman

Freedom
14

Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

Walt Whitman

Losers and Losing
15

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

Learning
16

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

Walt Whitman

Style
17

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

Walt Whitman

Fortune
18

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

Walt Whitman

Time and Time Management
19

How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!

Walt Whitman

Argument
20

I accept reality and dare not question it.

Walt Whitman

Reality
21

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

Walt Whitman

Self-esteem
22

I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers.

Walt Whitman

Parties
23

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

Walt Whitman

Nature
24

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.

Walt Whitman

Loneliness
25

I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious.

Walt Whitman

Self-love
26

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

Walt Whitman

Obesity
27

I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes -- but is that all?

Walt Whitman

Universe
28

I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election.

Walt Whitman

Uncategorised
29

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.

Walt Whitman

Enemies
30

If you done it, it ain't bragging.

Walt Whitman

Conceit
31

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 wherever I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Walt Whitman

God
32

It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy. Government has no such office. To protect the weak and the minority from the impositions of the strong and the majorityto prevent any one from positively working to render the people unhappy, to do the labor not of an officious inter-meddler in the affairs of men, but of a prudent watchman who prevents outragethese are rather the proper duties of a government. Under the specious pretext of effecting the happiness of the whole community, nearly all the wrongs and intrusions of government have been carried through. The legislature may, and should, when such things fall in its way, lend its potential weight to the cause of virtue and happinessbut to legislate in direct behalf of those objects is never available, and rarely effects any even temporary benefit.

Walt Whitman

Uncategorised
33

Let that which stood in front go behind, let that which was behind advance to the front, let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions, let the old propositions be postponed.

Walt Whitman

Change
34

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

Walt Whitman

Death and Dying
35

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

Walt Whitman

Character
36

O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.

Walt Whitman

Land
37

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself.

Walt Whitman

Travel and Tourism
38

O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.

Walt Whitman

Army and Navy
39

Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.

Walt Whitman

Control
40

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

Walt Whitman

Age and Aging
41

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

Walt Whitman

Class
42

Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history. Sometimes I think in all departments, literature and art included, that will be the way our superiority will exhibit itself. We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great.

Walt Whitman

Masses
43

Press close bare-bosomed night -- press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! mad naked summer night.

Walt Whitman

Night
44

Produce great men, the rest follows.

Walt Whitman

Example
45

Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)

Walt Whitman

Festival
46

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

Walt Whitman

Miracle
47

Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then?

Walt Whitman

Speech
48

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

Walt Whitman

Simplicity
49

The beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Walt Whitman

Burial
50

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

Walt Whitman

Independence
51

The city sleeps and the country sleeps, the living sleep for their time, the dead sleep for their time, the old husband sleeps by his wife and the young husband sleeps by his wife; and these tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them, and such as it is to be of these more or less I am, and of these one and all I weave the song of myself.

Walt Whitman

Sleep
52

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

Walt Whitman

People
53

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

Walt Whitman

Cities and City Life
54

The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?

Walt Whitman

Past
55

The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.

Walt Whitman

Liberty
56

The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.

Walt Whitman

Humankind
57

The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.

Walt Whitman

Books and Reading
58

Their manners, speech, dress, friendships, -- the freshness and candor of their physiognomy -- the picturesque looseness of their carriage -- their deathless attachment to freedom -- their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean -- the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states -- the fierceness of their roused resentment -- their curiosity and welcome of novelty -- their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy -- their susceptibility to a slight -- the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors -- the fluency of their speech -- their delight in music, a sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul -- their good temper and open-handedness -- the terrible significance of their elections, the President's taking off his hat to them, not they to him -- these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it.

Walt Whitman

United States of America
59

There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.

Walt Whitman

Things and Little Things
60

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.

Walt Whitman

Tyranny
61

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.

Walt Whitman

Education
62

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago.

Walt Whitman

Animal
63

This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.

Walt Whitman

Faces
64

This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and 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 towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and 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 books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.

Walt Whitman

Life and Living
65

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

Walt Whitman

Death and Dying
66

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

Walt Whitman

Audience
67

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

Walt Whitman

Miracle
68

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.

Walt Whitman

Manners
69

Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.

Walt Whitman

Language
70

We convince by our presence.

Walt Whitman

Present
71

What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires -- how many aspirations after goodness and truth -- how many noble thoughts, loving wishes toward our fellows, beautiful imaginings thou hast crushed under thy heel, without remorse or pause!

Walt Whitman

Poverty and The Poor
72

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

Walt Whitman

Truth
73

When I give I give myself.

Walt Whitman

Giving
74

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room, how soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wandered off by myself, in the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman

Astronomy
75

Youth, large, lusty, loving -- Youth, full of grace, force, fascination. Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?

Walt Whitman

Youth

Showing items 1 - 25 of 75

A List of Famous Walt Whitman Quotes you can use this list to help make your own ranked list about this topic

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

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

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.

All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor.

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.

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

Be curious, not judgmental.

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

Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man.

Camerado, I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?

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

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

Freedom -- to walk free and own no superior.

Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

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?

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

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

How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!

I accept reality and dare not question it.

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

I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers.

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

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.

I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious.

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

I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes -- but is that all?

I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested American national election.

I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.

If you done it, it ain't bragging.

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 wherever I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Let that which stood in front go behind, let that which was behind advance to the front, let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions, let the old propositions be postponed.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself.

O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.

Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

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

Press close bare-bosomed night -- press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! mad naked summer night.

Produce great men, the rest follows.

Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)

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

Speech is the twin of my vision, it is unequal to measure itself, it provokes me forever, it says sarcastically, Walt you contain enough, why don't you let it out then?

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

The beautiful uncut hair of graves.

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

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?

The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.

The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.

The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.

There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe.

There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.

This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.

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

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle. Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.

Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.

We convince by our presence.

What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires -- how many aspirations after goodness and truth -- how many noble thoughts, loving wishes toward our fellows, beautiful imaginings thou hast crushed under thy heel, without remorse or pause!

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

When I give I give myself.

Youth, large, lusty, loving -- Youth, full of grace, force, fascination. Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?