“It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them.”

— Walt Whitman, "Talk to an Art-Union" (1839)

About Walt Whitman

1819 – 1892

American poet and essayist who revised 'Leaves of Grass' across nearly four decades, celebrating democracy, the body and the self.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

“Each moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy.”

“I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.”

“A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, No.”