Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines.

Great is the faith of the flush of knowledge and of the investigation of the depths of qualities and things.

This hour I tell things in confidence/ I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.

From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines. Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute. Listening to others, and considering well what they say. Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating. Gently but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood? Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?

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.