Walt Whitman Quotes: Words that Stir the Soul

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes).

Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

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

Be curious, not judgmental.

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

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

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

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.

Do anything, but let it produce joy.

I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

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

The sunlit world looks coldly on the fool.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals.

You shall possess the good of the earth and sun.

I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained.

Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road.

To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.

There was never any more inception than there is now.

We were together. I forget the rest.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable.

Resist much, obey little.

I am satisfied—I see, dance, laugh, sing.

I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

America! I am the poet of you!

The future is no more uncertain than the present.

The real war will never get in the books.

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

I believe in the flesh and the appetites.

Not I, not anyone else can travel that road for you.

O to struggle against great odds.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.

I exist as I am, that is enough, if no other in the world be aware I sit content.

I sing the body electric, the armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them.

Love the earth and sun and the animals. Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others.

The future is no more uncertain than the present.

In the faces of men and women, I see God.

All things are atoned for, and every hour divine.

Life’s a voyage that’s homeward bound.

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen.