Quotes from Walt Whitman

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.

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me. If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing or next to nothing, if they do not enclose everything they are next to nothing, if they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing. If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

Let your barbaric yop be heard through the rooftops!

Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen; For room to me stars kept aside in their own rings, They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.

Here is what sings unrestricted faith.

Enough - the Centenarian's story ends; The two, past and present, have interchanged; I myself, as connector, as chansonnier of a great future, am now speaking.

America means above all toleration, catholicity, welcome, freedom--a concern for Europe, for Asia, for Africa, along with its concern for America. It is something quite peculiar, hardly to be stated--evades you as the air--yet is a fact everywhere preciously present.

This is the meal pleasantly set . . . . this is the meat and drink for natural hunger, It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous . . . . I make appointments with all, I will not have a single person slighted or left away, I will not have a single person slighted or left away, The keptwoman and sponger and thief are hereby invited . . . . the heavy-lipped slave is invited . . . . the venerealee is invited, There shall be no difference between them and the rest.

In vain the razor-bill'd auk sails far north to Labrador

The myth of heaven indicates peace and night. The myth of heaven indicates the soul; The soul is always beautiful . . . it appears more or it appears less . . . it comes or lags behind

And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has reference to the soul, Because having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.