POEM

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Song of Myself, 51

By Walt Whitman
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This poem about discovery, change, and transformation contains Whitman's arguably most famous lines: “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

In respect of copyright, we cannot display the poem here. Click the link to read it.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageWe cannot make another person change his or her steps to an old dance, but if we change our own steps, the dance no longer can continue in the same predictable pattern.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageOnly through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageLetting go of anger and hate requires us to give up the hope for a different past, along with the hope of a fantasized future. What we gain is a life more in the present, where we are not mired in prolonged anger and resentment that doesn’t serve us.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageAlthough the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageWhy are angry women so threatening to others? If we are guilty, depressed, or self-doubting, we stay in place. We do not take action except against our own selves and we are unlikely to be agents of personal and social change. In contrast, angry women may change and challenge the lives of us all.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageBut one of the hallmarks of emotional maturity is to recognize the validity of multiple realities and to understand that people think, feel, and react differently. Often we behave as if ‘closeness’ means ‘sameness.’

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Self-Discovery