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Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman Quotes

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Famous Walt Whitman Quotes

“The greatest country, the richest country, is not that which has the most capitalists, monopolists, immense grabbings, vast fortunes, with its sad, sad soil of extreme, degrading, damning poverty, but the land in which there are the most homesteads, freeholds - where wealth does not show such contrasts high and low, where all men have enough - a modest living- and no man is made possessor beyond the sane and beautiful necessities.”

MenDoeMadeCountryEnoughShowsBeautifulWealthPovertyLandLowsEconomicsFortuneExtremesInequalitySoilCapitalistContrastSaneImmenseModestDegradingSocial ClassGrabbingHighs And LowsEconomic InequalityWealth InequalityEconomic Equality
Author:Walt Whitman
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“I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.”

PeopleGivingGamesSportsLossDoorsBlessingBaseballGreat ThingsNervousStoicismOxygenSoftballBaseball GamesGreat BaseballMotivational BaseballSpring TrainingOpening DayBaseball Opening DayAmerican Baseball
Author:Walt Whitman
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“To the garden of the world anew descending, Potent mates, daughters, sons, preluding, The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being, Curious here behold my resurrection after slumber, The revolving cycles in their wide sweep having brought me again, amorous, mature, all beautiful to me, all wondrous, My limbs and the quivering fire that ever plays through them, for reasons, most wondrous, Existing I peer and penetrate still, Content with the present, content with the past, By my side or back of me Eve following, Or in front, and I following her just the same.”

WorldStillsReasonPlayBodyPastBeautifulSidesFireFrontsSonSpringDaughterGardenFollowingWideCuriousCyclesMatureMatesResurrectionPeersLimbsPenetrateWondrousSlumberDescendingRevolvingAmorous
Author:Walt Whitman
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“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.”

CountryYoungSongSleepCitiesWifeHusbandInwardInsomniaTime To Sleep
Book:Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems, 1855-1856
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“Exact science and its practical movements are no checks on the greatest poet, but always his encouragement and support ... The sailor and traveller, the anatomist, chemist, astronomer, geologist, phrenologist, spiritualist, mathematician, historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the lawgivers of poets and their construction underlies the structure of every perfect poem.”

ArtSciencePerfectSupportMovementPoetEncouragementStructurePracticalsChecksHistorianConstructionMathematicianSailorTravellerAstronomersChemistGeologistExact SciencesSupport And EncouragementLexicographer
Book:Poems
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“As for me, I know 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 the trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love, Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love, Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon... Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, Or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring... What stranger miracles are there?”

KnowsNightHouseStarsWaterSleepWalksWatchesTreeFeetSkyStreetsBedQuietMoonSummerSpringSightMiracleShiningBusyEdgesStrangerWoodsNakedBeachHoneyDelicateBeesRoofCurvesExquisiteAugustManhattanWadeNew MoonHivesHoney Bee
Author:Walt Whitman
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“From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines. Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute. Listening to others, and considering well what they say. Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating. Gently but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.”

WellsHoursLinesMy OwnMastersListeningIntegrityLimitsAbsolutesIndependenceListsReceivingImaginaryContemplatingConsideringHold MeListening To OthersPausingImaginary Lines
Book:Annotated LEAVES OF GRASS with English Grammar Exercises: by Walt Whitman (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“Well, every man has a religion; has something in heaven or earth which he will give up everything else for - something which absorbs him - which may be regarded by others as being useless - yet it is his dream, it is his lodestar, it is his master. That, whatever it is, seized upon me, made me its servant, slave - induced me to set aside the other ambitions a trail of glory in the heavens, which I followed, followed with a full heart. ...When once I am convinced, I never let go.”

MenGivingWellsHeartMayMadeDreamEarthHeavenMastersLetting GoGiving UpAmbitionGloryCommitmentSlaveConvincedEvery ManUselessServantTrailsNever Let GoFull Hearts
Author:Walt Whitman
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