Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass
Wit & one-liners
“Do I contradict myself?”
- Author
- Walt Whitman
- Work
- Leaves of Grass
- Year
- 1892
- Chapter / part
- Song of Myself, 51
- Length
- 16 words
- Source
- Project Gutenberg eBook #1322
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Walt Whitman died in 1892, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1892. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
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I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars,And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,And the tree-toad is a chef-d’œuvre for the highest,And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen cold and dead.
It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
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