Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Profoundly inspirational Walt Whitman quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
If you’re searching for quotes by famous poets that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Sylvia Plath quotes, amazing William Blake quotes and top Margaret Atwood quotes.
Famous Walt Whitman Quotes
Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. Walt Whitman
Resist much, obey little. Walt Whitman
I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. Walt Whitman
What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. Walt Whitman
I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends. Walt Whitman
This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the 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 toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the 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 book, 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. Walt Whitman
Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. Walt Whitman
Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. Walt Whitman
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
We were together. I forget the rest. Walt Whitman
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
I have learned that to be with those I like is enough. Walt Whitman
We convince by our presence. Walt Whitman
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth. Walt Whitman
The future is no more uncertain than the present. Walt Whitman
Be curious, not judgmental. Walt Whitman
Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune. Walt Whitman
Happiness, not in another place but this place not for another hour, but this hour. Walt Whitman
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word. Walt Whitman
I am large, I contain multitudes. Walt Whitman
Freedom to walk free and own no superior. Walt Whitman
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. 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
Do anything, but let it produce joy. Walt Whitman
And your very flesh shall be a great poem. Walt Whitman
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love these are what we stay alive for. Walt Whitman
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
I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. Walt Whitman
If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred. Walt Whitman
I like the scientific spirit the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them this is ultimately fine it always keeps the way beyond open always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake after a wrong guess. Walt Whitman
He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher. Walt Whitman
Peace is always beautiful. Walt Whitman
All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. Walt Whitman
Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you. Walt Whitman
The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves. Walt Whitman
And your very flesh shall be a great poem. Walt Whitman
I have learned that to be with those I like is enough. Walt Whitman
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person. Walt Whitman
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. Walt Whitman
These are the days that must happen to you. Walt Whitman
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle. Walt Whitman
Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us. Walt Whitman
I exist as I am, that is enough. Walt Whitman
God is a mean spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards. Walt Whitman
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. Walt Whitman
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth. Walt Whitman
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you That you may be my poem I whisper with my lips close to your ear I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you. Walt Whitman
Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you? Walt Whitman
Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me. Walt Whitman
Simplicity is the glory of expression. Walt Whitman
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles. Walt Whitman
When I give I give myself. Walt Whitman
Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. Walt Whitman
Now I see the secret of making the best person it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. Walt Whitman
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Walt Whitman
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
I exist as I am, that is enough. Walt Whitman
To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. Walt Whitman
Now I see the secret of making the best person it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. Walt Whitman
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game the American game. Walt Whitman
Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full dazzling. Walt Whitman
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud. Walt Whitman
Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. Walt Whitman
The real war will never get in the books. Walt Whitman
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. walt whitman
The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual. Walt Whitman
Argue not concerning God, re examine all that you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your soul. Walt Whitman
There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe. Walt Whitman
I cannot be awake, for nothing looks to me as it did before, or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep. Walt Whitman
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
Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you? Walt Whitman
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
There is no God any more divine than Yourself. Walt Whitman
The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book. Walt Whitman
Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. Walt Whitman
To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all. Walt Whitman
The future is no more uncertain than the present. Walt Whitman
Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me. Walt Whitman
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines. Walt Whitman
Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy. Walt Whitman
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love If you want me again look for me under your boot soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean But I shall be good health to you nonetheless And filter and fibre your blood. Walt Whitman
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
I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least. Walt Whitman
A great city is that which has the greatest men and women. Walt Whitman
My words itch at your ears till you understand them. Walt Whitman
And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death. Walt Whitman
A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls. Walt Whitman
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
I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms. Walt Whitman
The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. Walt Whitman
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle. Walt Whitman
There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius. Walt Whitman
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean. Walt Whitman
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
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, not look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books. You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, you shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself. Walt Whitman
Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me? Walt Whitman
Oh captain my captain. Walt Whitman
Nothing endures but personal qualities. Walt Whitman
The untold want, by life and land ne’er granted, Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find. Walt Whitman
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
Nothing can happen more beautiful than death. Walt Whitman
Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people. Walt Whitman
The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment to put things down without deliberation without worrying about their style without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote wrote, wrote. By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught. Walt Whitman
The beautiful uncut hair of graves. Walt Whitman
Oh, to be alive in such an age, when miracles are everywhere, and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy, of greater marvels yet to be. Walt Whitman
