Best 53 quotes in «leaves of grass quotes» category

If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred.

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

I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contained between my hat and my boots.

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

I say the whole earth and all the stars in the sky are for religion's sake.

NOT I - NOT ANYONE else, can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.

I tried to film 'Leaves of Grass' in Oklahoma, but it was literally about a million dollars less to shoot in Louisiana.

Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.

O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, / The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won

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.

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?

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.

Shut not your doors to me proud libraries.

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?

Strong and content I travel the open road.

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.

The English tourist in American literature wants above all things something different from what he has at home. For this reason the one American writer whom the English whole-heartedly admire is Walt Whitman. There, you will hear them say, is the real American undisguised. In the whole of English literature there is no figure which resembles his - among all our poetry none in the least comparable to Leaves of Grass

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

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

There will never be any more perfection than there is now.

What we set out to do with this movie [Leaves of Grass] was to create something that was funny and serious and had large tonal ambitions. A movie that could be poignant and funny, and suddenly quite violent. To have a character utterly sideswiped, and to learn that life is about balance.

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.

To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

Unscrew the locks from the doors ! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs !

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

Wisdom is not finally tested by the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.

Behold the day-break! I awaken you by sitting on your chest and purring in your face, I stir you with muscular paw-prods, I rouse you with toe-bites, Walt, you have slept enough, why don't you get up?" (From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean

He is a type of our best — our rarest. Electrical, I was going to say, beyond anyone, perhaps, ever was: charged, surcharged. Not a founder of new philosophies — not of that build. But a towering magnetic presence, filling the air about with light, warmth, inspiration. A great intellect, penetrating, in ways (on his field) the best of our time — to be long kept, cherished, passed on... It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is 'Leaves of Grass.' He lives, embodies, the individuality I preach. 'Leaves of Grass' utters individuality, the most extreme, uncompromising. I see in Bob the noblest specimen —American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving, demanding light. {Whitman's thought on his good friend, the great Robert Ingersoll}

Has any one supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.

The new rule shall rule as the soul rules, and as the love and justice and equality that are in the soul rule.

I depart as air .... I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags. I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

I exist as I am, that is enough...

I situate myself, and seat myself, And where you recline I shall recline, For every armchair belonging to you as good as belongs to me. I loaf and curl up my tail I yawn and loaf at my ease after rolling in the catnip patch." (From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)

Somehow I have been stunned. Stand back! Give me a little time beyond my cuffed head and slumbers and dreams and gaping, I discover myself on the verge of the usual mistake.

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth, And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers, And that a kelson of the creation is love, And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields, And brown ants in the little wells beneath them, And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heap'd stones, elder, mullein and poke-weed.

The noisy jay swoops by and reviles me, he complains of my meow and my malingering. I too am not a bit subdued, I too am uncontrollable, I sound my splenetic yowl over the roof of the house." (From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my BARBARIC YAWP over the roofs of the world

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.

You can never know where I am or what I am, But I am good company to you nonetheless, And really do regret I broke your inkwell." (From Meow of Myself, from LEAVES OF CATNIP)

Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.

Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost.

Clear and sweet is my soul, clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.

Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I can bear it.

I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

Give me solitude, give me Nature, give me again O Nature your primal sanities!

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.