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Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Quoteiac

Resist Much, Obey Little — Whitman Phone Case

Sale price$32.00

Three lines, addressed to a whole country and to nobody in particular. The first line carries the instruction; the two that follow explain what happens if you ignore it. Whitman published it in 1860 under a different title and was still moving it between clusters twenty years later.

Walt Whitman, "To the States," Leaves of Grass, 1881

"Resist much, obey little"

Context

The full opening line runs: To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, — and it doesn't stop there. The next two lines set the price: once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved; once fully enslaved, no nation, state, or city ever afterward resumes its liberty.

He wrote it in 1860, a year before the country went to war with itself over exactly that question. It appeared under three different cluster headings across three decades. The words never changed.

Who It's For

  • You read the news and work out for yourself what it means
  • You've been told to fall in line and found a better answer
  • You reach for your phone dozens of times a day and would rather see something worth reading

The Design

One word is heavier than everything around it — much. Whitman didn't write "resist." He wrote how much, and the design puts the weight exactly there. You'll read that word first every time you pick up the phone.

The two halves never align; the second steps right of the first and stays there. That's the same deliberate off-balance — fukinsei — that runs through this collection: nothing squared up, nothing settled.

About This Case

  • Dual-layer construction — flexible inner layer, hard polycarbonate outer shell
  • Raised edges protect the screen and camera
  • Deep black ground runs to every edge; the words sit clear of the camera cutout
  • Wireless charging compatible — works with most Qi-enabled devices

Keep away from prolonged direct sunlight and high-alcohol liquids to preserve the design.

Walt Whitman, in Plain English

  • Born in West Hills, New York, 1819; died in Camden, New Jersey, 1892
  • Self-published the first Leaves of Grass in 1855: a preface and twelve untitled poems. He rebuilt the book five more times over the next twenty-six years
  • Spent the Civil War years in Washington as an unpaid hospital visitor, sitting with wounded soldiers on both sides
  • Lived his last nineteen years in Camden, New Jersey, receiving visitors from three continents
  • The 1881 Osgood edition is the one that settled the arrangement — the clusters, the order, where each poem finally lived

More from this collection

Resist Much, Obey Little — Whitman T-Shirt — the same four words, worn. See the full Walt Whitman collection.

Read: Ted Lasso's Best Quote Came From a 1986 Advice Column →

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Black matte phone case: Resist Much Obey Little design with Walt Whitman attribution from Leaves of Grass 1881
Resist Much, Obey Little — Whitman Phone Case Sale price$32.00