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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I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it.
Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.
Since that deluge of newspaper articles I have been so flooded with questions, invitations, suggestions, that I keep dreaming I am roasting in Hell, and the mailman is the devil eternally yelling at me, showering me with more bundles of letters at my head because I have not answered the old ones.
It takes a checkbook to change the world
One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.
Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as is possible, and moves the reader towards him: or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.