Context

This line comes from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself," published in his collection Leaves of Grass (1855).

Walt Whitman begins his epic poem, "Song of Myself," with a pretty arrogant first line. He's here to celebrate himself, so buckle up, readers. But good ol' Walt doesn't wanna just talk about me, me, me all the time. Turns out, by rejoicing in himself, he's actually celebrating all of humanity, too. Well, that's cool then. Sure, he's one of the greatest poets of all time, but we do hate it when anyone gets too braggy.

Where you've heard it

This is an awesome first line to an awesome poem, so you've probably heard people talk about it when they're quoting Walt Whitman or just feeling really good about themselves.

Additional Notable References:

• On Breaking Bad, Walter White gets a copy of the book Leaves of Grass (which contains the entire poem "Song of Myself") from a guy he later has to kill. Bummer.
• In Paper Towns, Quentin looks through the poem "Song of Myself" for clues to find Margo.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Sorry, but celebrating yourself is best done outside your next dinner party. We totally get what Walt Whitman was trying to say, but you'll definitely come off as super self-involved if you let this quote fly.