"If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate."
Elbert Hubbard

"The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing."
— Walt Whitman

"Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made on the fate of those who suffer by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed."
Herman Melville

"The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing."
— Walt Whitman

"History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world. "
Heraclitus

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man


"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes."
— Walt Whitman

"One must not think slightingly of the paradoxical...for the paradox is the source of the thinker's passion, and the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling: a paltry mediocrity."
— Soren Kierkegaard

Walt Whitman Quotes:

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

Camerado, this is no book. Who touches this, touches a man.

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

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.

To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.

What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the words I have read in my life.

Be curious, not judgmental.

Come lovely and soothing death, Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, In the day, in the night, to all, to each, Sooner or later, delicate death.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done! The ship has weathered every wrack, the prize we sought is won

Praised be the fathomless universe, For life and joy and for objects and knowledge curious; And for love, sweet love — But praise! O praise and praise, For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.

I see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, “Do not weep for me, This is not my true country, I have lived banished from my true country — I now go back there, I return to the celestial sphere where every one goes in his turn.”

Oh Me! Oh Life!  of the questions recurring,

                               Answer
That you are here - that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Whispers of Heavenly Death by Walt Whitman


Whispers of heavenly death murmur'd I hear,
Labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals,
Footsteps gently ascending, mystical breezes wafted soft and low,
Ripples of unseen rivers, tides of a current flowing, forever flowing,
(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?)
I see, just see skyward, great cloud-masses,
Mournfully slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing,
With at times a half-dimm'd sadden'd far-off star,
Appearing and disappearing.
(Some parturition rather, some solemn immortal birth;
On the frontiers to eyes impenetrable,
Some soul is passing over.)

Darest thou now O soul

Darest thou now O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?


No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.


I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream'd of in that region, that inaccessible land.


Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.


Then we burst forth, we float,
In Time and Space O soul, prepared for them,
Equal, equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil O soul.