All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
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.
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
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 quotes →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.
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
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.
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
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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.
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.
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.
I don't care about age very much.