Walt Whitman quotes

1819–1892 · West Hills, NY

• I too am not a bit tamed . . . . I too am untranslatable, / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

• Do I contradict myself? / Very well then . . . . I contradict myself; / I am large . . . . I contain multitudes.

• Whoever degrades another degrades me . . . . and whatever is done or said returns at last to me, / And whatever I do or say I also return.

• I am the poet of the body, / And I am the poet of the soul.

• I exist as I am, that is enough, / If no other in the world be aware I sit content, / And if each and all be aware I sit content.

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

• I celebrate myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

• The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.