“I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.”
“A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.”
“Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.”
“The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.”
“Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.”
“O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is.”
“And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.”
“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.”
“Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people.”
“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes).”
“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
“This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.”
“To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.”
“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.”
“O the joy of the strong-brawn'd fighter, towering in the arena in perfect condition, conscious of power, thirsting to meet his opponent.”
“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.”
“Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.”
“Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.”
“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.”
“Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gathered, it is the fourth of Seventh-month, (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)”
“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.”
“I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the midnight orgies of young men, I dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers.”
“Camerado, I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?”
“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?”
“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.”
“There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.”
“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.”
“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?”
“Press close bare-bosomed night -- press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! mad naked summer night.”
“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.”