Through his poems, essays, and other works, Walt Whitman left us with many wise and memorable quotes. He also gave us fascinating insight into his own life — as a humanist and one of the most influential (and, in his day, controversial) poets in American literature. In his 1839 essay “Talk to an Art-Union,” Whitman put forth his ideas about the spirit of art, which he interpreted not just as painting or sculpture but as the highest ideal of beauty. Everyone, he believed, had within them the potential for reaching this ideal, be it through creativity or greatness. “I think of few heroic actions,” he wrote, “which cannot be traced to the artistic impulse.” He concluded his celebration of art by saying that, given the freedom it deserves, art must “sooner or later tower to its loftiest and most perfect proportions.”