Walt Whitman

"There was never any more inception than there is now
Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."

There is no time like the present, or so the saying goes, and so says Whitman in this quote. You are You right now in this moment, and you never know if you will be able to say that in the next moment, so you are who you are and that is all. These things that Whitman lists here are all subjective and, basically, arbitrary: perfection is in the eye of the beholder, age is a concept of time created by humans, and believing in heaven or hell is a decision that varies based on different people. So as you change and the world changes around you, you never know what will happen to you in the next moment, but all the while there will always be a Now even if you aren't apart of it. These things will always exist as long as human consciousness is around to believe in them. So while the rest of the world changes, these will not.

"I am not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth,
I am the mate and companion of people, all just as
immortal and fathomless as myself."

This is probably one of my favorite quotes ever ever ever. I am not the earth: I am not great, I am not mighty. I am simple, I am not the whole world, I am not even my own whole world. I am not even apart of this earth. I am of the souls of the people. It makes me think of an entire connected line of peoples' souls, all different, all unique, and yet still one entity. You are just one of them, and the souls are eternal. You come and go on earth, for you are not a physical being: you are an immortal, endless, fathomless soul with a combination of feelings and ideas and emotions and loves that none of those other souls have. And when you die, you will no longer have the earth, but that's okay because you never had it in the first place. Your soul will live on.