Leaves of Grass

This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for your income and labour to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

Walt Whitman, from the preface to ‘Leaves of Grass’