“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”
“O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, / The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won”
“The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.”
“We arrange our lives-even the best and boldest men and women that exist, just as much as the most limited-with reference to what society conventionally rules and makes right.”
“Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,Strong and content I travel the open road.”
“I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.”
“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.”
“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean”
“Me imperturbe, standing at ease in nature.”
“I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.”
“The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”
“The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?”
“All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.”
“To have great poets, there must be great audiences.”
“NOT I - NOT ANYONE else, can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.”
“The sum of all known value and respect, I add up in you, whoever you are.”
“A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.”
“A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity; but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman.”
“Many a good man I have seen go under.”
“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you 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.”
“Comerado, this is no book,Who touches this, touches a man,(Is it night? Are we here alone?)It is I you hold, and who holds you,I spring from the pages into your arms-decease calls me forth.”
“Long have you timidly waded Holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, Rise again, nod to me, shout, And laughingly dash with your hair.”
“I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time.”
“Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.”
“Man is about the same, in the main, whether with despotism, or whether with freedom.”
