• Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

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• "Do you take it I would astonish? / Does the daylight astonish? or the early redstart twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they? / This hour I tell things in confidence, / I might not tell everybody but I will tell you."
• "And I know I am solid and sound, / To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow, / All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means."
• "I know I am august, / I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood, / I see that the elementary laws never apologize, / I reckon I behave no prouder than the level I plant my house by after all."
• "I exist as I am, that is enough, / If no other in the world be aware I sit content, / And if each and all be aware I sit content."
• "I am he that walks with the tender and growing night; / I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night."
• "O despairer, here is my neck, / By God! you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me."
• "You are also asking me questions, and I hear you; / I answer that I cannot answer... you must find out for yourself."
• "Do I contradict myself? / Very well then... I contradict myself; / I am large... I contain multitudes."
• "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, / If you want me again look for me under your boot soles."
• "I think I could turn and live awhile with the animals... / They are so placid and self-contained, / I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long."
• "And as to you death, and you bitter hug of mortality... / It is idle to try to alarm me. / -- / And as to you life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, / No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before."
• "Have you guessed you yourself would not continue? / Have you dreaded those earth-beetles? / Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?"
• "The earth recedes from me into the night, / I saw that it was beautiful... and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful."

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• "Expression of speech... / In what is written or said forget not that silence is also expressive, / That anguish as hot as the hottest / And contempt as cold as the coldest may be without words, / That the true adoration is likewise without words and without kneeling."