All music is is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.
This is the city, and I am one of the citizens/Whatever interests the rest interests me
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals within a community.
Walt Whitman's quote reflects the idea that an individual is intrinsically linked to the larger community or city. It suggests that the concerns and interests of the people around us are also our own, highlighting a sense of shared humanity and collective responsibility. By identifying himself as one of the citizens, Whitman underscores that personal well-being is tied to the well-being of the community, encouraging solidarity and empathy among individuals.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community engagement, one might say, 'As Walt Whitman once expressed, this is the city, and whatever interests the rest interests me.'
More from Walt Whitman
All quotes βDid 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.
Similar quotes
I want you to think of your life as an hourglass. You know there are thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass; and they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the middle. Nothing you or I could do would make more than one grain of sand pass through this narrow neck without impairing the hourglass. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering?
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
If life β the craving for which is the very essence of our being β were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
Everything with me is either worship and passion or pity and understanding. I hate rarely, though when I hate. I hate murderously.