From the preface to Leaves of Grass

This is what you should do: Love the earth and sun and animals,

despise riches, give alms to everyone who asks,

stand up for the stupid and crazy,

devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants,

argue not concerning God,

have patience and indulgence toward the people,

re-examine all you have been told in school or church

or any book,

dismiss what insults your very soul,

and your flesh shall become a great poem.

Walt Whitman