QuoteProject
We consider bibles and religions divine I do not say they are not divine. I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still. It is not they who give the life, it is you who give the life.
Walt Whitman
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes that the essence of spirituality and life's meaning comes from within us, rather than solely from external religious texts.

Walt Whitman's quote suggests that while religious texts and bibles may hold divine significance, their true power and relevance stem from our individual interpretations and experiences. It highlights the idea that the essence of life and spirituality is not confined to written doctrines but is a living, evolving force that originates from within ourselves. Therefore, we have the potential to shape and redefine our beliefs and values independently.

Themes

SpiritualityLifeReligionSelf-DiscoveryDivinity

In practice

Example use cases

This quote would be great to use in a speech about personal beliefs and spirituality.

More from Walt Whitman

All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
Walt WhitmanRead
Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between people, and their beliefs - in religion, literature, colleges and schools- democracy in all public and private life.
Walt WhitmanRead
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.
Walt WhitmanRead
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Walt WhitmanRead
Now, dearest comrade, lift me to your face,_x000D_ _x000D_ We must separate awhileHere! take from my lips this kiss._x000D_ _x000D_ Whoever you are, I give it especially to you;_x000D_ _x000D_ So long!And I hope we shall meet again.
Walt WhitmanRead
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
Walt WhitmanRead

Similar quotes

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.
Noam ChomskyRead
Which is it? Is man only a blunder of God? Or is God only a blunder of man?
Friedrich NietzscheRead
It made me love talk that sought answers to questions that could help nobody, that could only keep alive in me that enthralling sense of wonder and awe in the face of the drama of human feeling which is hidden by the external drama of life.
Richard WrightRead
I feel like someone after a deluge being asked to describe the way it was before the flood while I'm still plucking seaweed out of my hair.
Norman RushRead
I saw in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human.
Hugo GrotiusRead
I don't care about age very much.
Chinua AchebeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.