Walt Whitman: Introduction to Leaves of Grass

We are not the first to discover that only in giving generously of our full selves do we fully live. And the more we allow — and even encourage! — the vast mysteries to bubble up from within us, the more we can give, the more fully we live. Hallelujah! (And BTW: this Hallelujah is NOT “broken.” See this and this.)

Via Win.

“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men—go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families—re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.”

— from Preface to “Leaves of Grass” (1855)