Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history. Sometimes I think in all departments, literature and art included, that will be the way our superiority will exhibit itself. We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great.

The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies, It wrenches such ardors from me I did not know I possess'd them

I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death.

I meet new Walt Whitmans everyday. There are a dozen of them afloat. I don't know which Walt Whitman I am.

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin , or even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.

My call is the call of battle- I nourish active rebellion;/ He going with me must go well armed.

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.