Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death. - (Whitman, Walt - Age and Aging)

Their manners, speech, dress, friendships, -- the freshness and candor of their physiognomy -- the picturesque looseness of their carriage -- their deathless attachment to freedom -- their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean -- the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states -- the fierceness of their roused resentment -- their curiosity and welcome of novelty -- their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy -- their susceptibility to a slight -- the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors -- the fluency of their speech -- their delight in music, a sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul -- their good temper and open-handedness -- the terrible significance of their elections, the President's taking off his hat to them, not they to him -- these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it. - (Whitman, Walt - America)

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. - (Whitman, Walt - Animals)

How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed! - (Whitman, Walt - Argument)

O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent. - (Whitman, Walt - Army and Navy)

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room, how soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wandered off by myself, in the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, looked up in perfect silence at the stars. - (Whitman, Walt - Astronomy)

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too. - (Whitman, Walt - Audiences)

Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man. - (Whitman, Walt - Books - Reading)

The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything. - (Whitman, Walt - Books - Reading)

The beautiful uncut hair of graves. - (Whitman, Walt - Burial)

Let that which stood in front go behind, let that which was behind advance to the front, let bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new propositions, let the old propositions be postponed. - (Whitman, Walt - Change)

Nothing endures but personal qualities. - (Whitman, Walt - Character)

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. - (Whitman, Walt - Cities and City Life)

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women. - (Whitman, Walt - Cities and City Life)

Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people. - (Whitman, Walt - Class)