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Ages, precedents, have long been accumulating undirected materials,
America brings builders, and brings its own styles.
The immortal poets of Asia and Europe have done their work and pass'd to other spheres,
A work remains, the work of surpassing all they have done.

— Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass (1892)

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More quotes by Walt Whitman

I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse. He who does great deeds, does them from his innate sensitiveness to moral beauty.

Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

Poetry (like a grand personality) is a growth of many generations — many rare combinations.
To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

Complete Prose Works (1892)

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

I will write the evangel-poem of comrades and of love.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Walt Whitman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.