“I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is”
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Walt Whitman 181
American poet, essayist and journalist 1819–1892Related quotes

Fragment xxxii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god’s messenger.”

Letter to Governor Dinwiddie (29 May 1754)
1750s

“Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.”

Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 319
Context: The body was born and it will die. But for the soul there is no death. It is like the betel-nut. When the nut is ripe it does not stick to the shell. But when it is green it is difficult to separate it from the shell. After realizing God, one does not identify oneself any more with the body. Then one knows that body and soul are two different things.