An American Primer Quotes

“Much is said of what is spiritual, and of spirituality, in this, that, or the other - in objects, expressions. - For me, I see no object, no expression, no animal, no tree, no art, no book, but I see, from morning to night, and from night to morning, the spiritual. - Bodies are all spiritual, - All words are spiritual - nothing is more spiritual than words. - Whence are they? along how many thousands and tens of thousands of years have they come? those eluding, fluid, beautiful, fleshless, realities, Mother, Father, Water, Earth, Me, This, Soul, Tongue, House, Fire.”
― Walt Whitman, An American Primer: With Facsimiles of the Original Manuscript

“Names are the turning point of who shall be master. - There is so much virtue in names that a nation which produces its own names, haughtily adheres to them, and subordinates others to them, leads all the rest of the nations of the earth. - I also promulge that a nation which has not its own names, but begs them of other nations, has no identity, marches not in front but behind.”
― Walt Whitman, An American Primer: With Facsimiles of the Original Manuscript