Walt Whitman

"Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?"

"Whatever satisfies the soul is truth."

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes."

"O the joy of my spirit--it is uncaged--it darts like lightning!It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time,I will have thousands of globes and all time."

"Whatever satisfies the soul is truth."

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I loveIf you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.You will hardly know who I am or what I meanBut I shall be good health to you nonethelessAnd filter and fibre your blood."

"Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul."

"Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul."

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."

"I have learned that to be with those I like is enough."

"What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life."

"I have said that the soul is not more than the body,And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is,"

"Songs of myselfClear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. Lack one lacks both, and the unseen is proved by the seen, Till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn."

"Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch."

"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…"

"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…"

"We convince by our presence."

"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.)"

"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."

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