Top 400 Walt Whitman Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “These are the days that must happen to you.”

— Walt Whitman

52. “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

53. “I think I could always live with animals. The more you’re around people, the more you love animals.”

— Walt Whitman

54. “I and this mystery, here we stand.”

— Walt Whitman

55. “I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.”

— Walt Whitman

56. “The art of art, the glory of expression, is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity, and the sunlight of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity-nothing can make up for excess, or for the lack of definiteness.”

— Walt Whitman

57. “In all people I see myself – none more, and not one a barleycorn less; And the good or bad I say of myself, I say of them.”

— Walt Whitman

58. “TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward resumes its liberty.”

— Walt Whitman

59. “All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain.”

— Walt Whitman

60. “After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.”

— Walt Whitman

61. “The earth does not argue, Is not pathetic, has no arrangements, Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise, Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out.”

— Walt Whitman

62. “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.”

— Walt Whitman

63. “O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you; As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.”

— Walt Whitman

64. “Simplicity is the glory of expression.”

— Walt Whitman

65. “A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.”

— Walt Whitman

66. “What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior?”

— Walt Whitman

67. “And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and can be none in the future, And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turned to beautiful results.”

— Walt Whitman

68. “We all have great things on our bucket lists like skydiving, seeing the Northern Lights etc, but what about simply falling in love? Isn’t that the most amazing thing we can do?”

— Walt Whitman

69. “Unscrew the locks from the doors ! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs !”

— Walt Whitman

70. “I tramp a perpetual journey.”

— Walt Whitman

71. “Me imperturbe, standing at ease in nature.”

— Walt Whitman

72. “The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not discouraged – keep on – there are divine things, well envelop’d; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.”

— Walt Whitman

73. “And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?”

— Walt Whitman

74. “If you done it, it ain’t bragging.”

— Walt Whitman

75. “If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.”

— Walt Whitman

76. “There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now; And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

— Walt Whitman

77. “Praised be the fathomless universe, for life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious.”

— Walt Whitman

78. “Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.”

— Walt Whitman

79. “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

80. “I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?”

— Walt Whitman

81. “When I give, I give myself.”

— Walt Whitman

82. “From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.”

— Walt Whitman

83. “Now I see that there is no such thing as love unreturn’d. The pay is certain, one way or another.”

— Walt Whitman

84. “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”

— Walt Whitman

85. “When the materials are ready, the architects shall appear.”

— Walt Whitman

86. “Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.”

— Walt Whitman

87. “Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.”

— Walt Whitman

88. “There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he looked upon, that object he became...”

— Walt Whitman

89. “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”

— Walt Whitman

90. “I have no mockings or arguments; I witness and wait.”

— Walt Whitman

91. “Whoever you are, motion and reflection are especially for you, The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.”

— Walt Whitman

92. “We convince by our presence.”

— Walt Whitman

93. “There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.”

— Walt Whitman

94. “It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy – government has no such office.”

— Walt Whitman

95. “I am the man, I suffered, I was there.”

— Walt Whitman

96. “The future is no more uncertain than the present.”

— Walt Whitman

97. “My ties and ballasts leave me – I travel – I sail – My elbows rest in the sea-gaps. I skirt the sierras. My palms cover continents – I am afoot with my vision.”

— Walt Whitman

98. “Whoever degrades another degrades me.”

— Walt Whitman

99. “I sing the body that is electric! I celebrate the Self yet to be unveiled!”

— Walt Whitman

100. “The ecstasy is so short but the forgetting is so long.”

— Walt Whitman