Quotations by Walt Whitman

WHITMAN, WALT (1819-1892), American poet

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

~Walt Whitman

“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, Democratic Vistas

“I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God - I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.”

~Walt Whitman

“Wisdom is not finally tested in the 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.”

~Walt Whitman

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

~Walt Whitman

“The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman.”

~Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe

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

~Walt Whitman

“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

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.”

~Walt Whitman

“Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

~Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

“The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.”

~Walt Whitman

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

~Walt Whitman

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

~Walt Whitman

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

~Walt Whitman

“Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.”

~Walt Whitman

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

~Walt Whitman

“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

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

~Walt Whitman

“You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.”

~Walt Whitman

“Nothing endures but personal qualities.”

~Walt Whitman

“And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death.”

~Walt Whitman

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”

~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

 “The future is no more uncertain than the present.”

~Walt Whitman

“The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.”

~Walt Whitman

“I accept reality and dare not question it.”

~Walt Whitman

“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral dressed in his shroud.”

~Walt Whitman

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”

~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

NB: This article was last updated on January 09, 2018

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Tanvir Shameem

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