The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual. I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences. There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
Tyranny may always enter - there is no charm no bar against it - the only bar against it is large resolute breed of men. I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. If you done it, it ain't bragging. The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws. Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.

I say to mankind, Be not curious about God. For I, who am curious about each, am not curious about God - I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least. In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word. Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. Copulation is no more foul to me than death is. The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.

What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. Simplicity is the glory of expression. Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul.

And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death. Nothing endures but personal qualities. Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all. Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy. Be curious, not judgmental.

A simple separate person is not contained between his hat and his boots. The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people. And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral dressed in his shroud. To have great poets, there must be great audiences. I accept reality and dare not question it.

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you? 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? To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all. Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune.

Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch. The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. 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. I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

The future is no more uncertain than the present. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person. Resist much, obey little. All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. 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.

Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it. The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards. I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake. The beauty of independence, departure, actions that rely on themselves. My words itch at your ears till you understand them.