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Leaves of Grass QUOTES

Leaves of Grass QUOTES

1 " The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

2 " I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me.

Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

3 " 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. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

4 " Of Equality--as if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself--as if it were not indispensable to my own rights that others possess the same. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

5 " re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and 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.

[From the preface to Leaves Grass] "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

6 " 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. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

7 " Here is the test of wisdom,
Wisdom is not finally tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
Something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

8 " Resist much, obey little. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

9 " I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

10 " I believe in the flesh and the appetites;
Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from;
The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer;
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

11 " I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

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

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

13 " not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred & fifty are dumb yet at Alamo. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

14 " Come, said my Soul
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after death invisibly return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas’d smiles I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning — as, first, I here and now,
Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name, "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

15 " Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you? I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by you... "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

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

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

17 " My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.
I have look'd for equals and lovers an found them ready for me in all lands,
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

18 " One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself, / And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten / million years, / I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait. "

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

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

― Walt Whitman , Leaves of Grass

20 " 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 , Leaves of Grass