The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives… — Walt Whitman

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

Walt WhitmanPoet · American · 1819 – 1892

More from Walt Whitman

Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy. — Walt Whitman
In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word. — Walt Whitman
Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. — Walt Whitman
The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts, it is still the greatest city in the whole world. — Walt Whitman
The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws. — Walt Whitman
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. — Walt Whitman