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Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman Quotes

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Famous Walt Whitman Quotes

“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.”

PeopleThinkingMenWayHas BeensArtSometimesLiteratureIndividualLeaderMassAccountsAverageDepartmentImmenseSuperiorityGreat LeaderExhibitsLiterature And Art
Book:Prose Works 1892: Speciman Days
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“I think I could turn and live with the animals, they are so placid and self contained; I stand and look at them long and long. 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 his kind that lived thousands of years ago; Not one is responsible or industrious over the whole earth.”

ThinkingYearsLooksKindLongSelfWholeEarthLyingTurnsDarkSinAnimalConditionsDutyYears AgoSickResponsibleAwakeSweatDiscussingDissatisfiedIndustriousManiaHuman AnimalLeaves Of GrassDementedPlacidSelf ContainedDuty To God
Author:Walt Whitman
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“Are you the new person drawn toward me? To begin with, take warning - I am surely far different from what you suppose; Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction? Do you think I am trusty and faithful? Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me? Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man? Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?”

ThinkingMenMayPersonsDifferentRealWould BeEasyLoversIllusionIdealsSatisfactionFaithfulWarningDreamerHeroicSmoothAdvancingMaya Illusion
Book:Leaves of Grass
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“Sometimes with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn'd love; But now I think there is no unreturn'd love—the pay is certain, one way or another; (I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return'd; Yet out of that, I have written these songs.)”

ThinkingWayLovePersonsSometimesAgeCertainSongPayWrittenReturnRageOne Way
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)
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“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.”

IfsThinkingMenWellsChildrenDoeDifferentEndsMomentsShowsYoungDeathDiesWaitingAliveOld ManCollapseSmallestLeaves Of GrassSproutsYoung And Old
Author:Walt Whitman
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“And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.... And as to you corpse, I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me, I smell the white roses sweet-scented and growing, I reach to the leafy lips — I reach to the polished breasts of melons. And as to you life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.”

ThinkingTryingDoeDeathWhiteDoubtGrowingSweetThousandTenDiedRoseLeavingLipsSmellBitterNo DoubtBreastsGood ManMortalityHugIdleCorpsesAlarmsPolishedManureMelonsWhite Rose
Author:Walt Whitman
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