"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
Philosophy
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself."
Happiness
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you."
Hope
"The future is no more uncertain than the present."
Time
"I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best."
Wisdom
"O me! O life!... that you are here—that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."
Inspiration
"Be curious, not judgmental."
Kindness
"I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."
Courage
"All truths wait in all things."
Truth
"Slander and abuse never yet were successfully met, in any age of the world, by ignoring them."
Justice
"The greatest delight the fields can give is the meeting a personality that stands out."
Nature
"I have said that the soul is not more than the body, and I have said that the body is not more than the soul."
Philosophy
"Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?"
Education
"A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one."
Leadership
"I exist as I am, that is enough."
Happiness
"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals."
Nature
"The real America is in the hearts of the people."
Politics
"I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me!"
Motivation
"O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human soul is capable of entertaining for the human soul!"
Love
"Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak with me, why should you not speak with me?"
Friendship
"I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end."
Knowledge
"The clock indicates the moment—but what does eternity indicate?"
Time
"Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling."
Beauty
"That you are here—that life exists and identity."
"I am large, I contain multitudes."
Philosophy
"There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person."
Wisdom
"To have great poets, there must be great audiences."
Literature
"I hear America singing."
Music
"The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem."
Literature
"I am my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another."
Perseverance
