If there were nothing else of Abraham Lincoln for history to stamp him with, it is enough to send him with his wreath to the memory of all future time, that he endured that hour, that day, bitterer than gall - indeed a crucifixion day - that it did not conquer him - that he unflinchingly stemmed it, and resolved to lift himself and the Union out of it.
Walt WhitmanAt times it has been doubtful to me if Emerson really knows or feels what Poetry is at its highest, as in the Bible, for instance, or Homer or Shakspeare. I see he covertly or plainly likes best superb verbal polish, or something old or odd
Walt WhitmanWhat is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.
Walt WhitmanThe secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment โ to put things down without deliberation โ without worrying about their style โ without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote โ wrote, wroteโฆBy writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.
Walt Whitman