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

"The American bards shall be marked for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors. The great poets are also to be known by the absence in them of tricks and by the justification of perfect personal candor. How beautiful is candor! All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor."

"I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes - but is that all?"

"If you done it, it ain't bragging."

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

"Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul."

"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."

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

"There is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe."

"I accept reality and dare not question it."

"The future is no more uncertain than the present."

"The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.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 boot-soles.You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to your nevertheless,And filter and fibre your blood.Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,Missing me one place, search another,I stop somewhere waiting for you."

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

"WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name? repeating it over and over; I stand apart to hear-it never tires me. To you, your name also; Did you think there was nothing but two or three pronunciations in the sound of your name?"

"Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much? Have you practis'd so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems? Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,) You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor 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 your self."

"Nothing endures but personal qualities."

"I believe in the flesh and the appetites; Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle. Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from;The scent of these arm-pits, aroma finer than prayer; This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds."

"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."

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

"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.One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself."

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

"One's-Self I Sing One's-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing."

"Copulation is no more foul to me than death is."

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

"O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself."

"Produce great men, the rest follows."

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

"And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero."

"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?"

"My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.I have look'd for equals and lovers an found them ready for me in all lands,I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them."

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

"We were together. I forget the rest."

"I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person."

"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."

"I visit the orchards of God and look at the spheric productAnd look at quintillions ripened, and look at quintillions green."