Mary Oliver Quotes

Quotes about:

• it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.

  Mary Oliver

  Morning, Broken, Serious Things

  Mary Oliver (2008). “Red Bird: Poems”, p.28, Beacon Press

  344 Copy quote

• Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

  Mary Oliver

  Life, Pay, Attention

  FaceBook post by Mary Oliver from Sep 17, 2016

  218 Copy quote

• I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.

  Mary Oliver

  Sight, Depth, Asks

  222 Copy quote

• Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride, married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. Instructions for living a life: pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

  Mary Oliver

  Attention, World, Want

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

  115 Copy quote

• Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.

  Mary Oliver

  Dream, Heart, Imagination

  Mary Oliver (2009). “Evidence: Poems”, p.43, Beacon Press

  171 Copy quote

• I would say that there exists a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves-we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together, we are each other's destiny.

  Mary Oliver

  Stars, Destiny, Feet

  149 Copy quote

• Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.

  Mary Oliver

  Morning, Kindness, Watches

  FaceBook post by Mary Oliver from Nov 12, 2016

  142 Copy quote

• Every day I walk out into the world / to be dazzled, then to be reflective.

  Mary Oliver

  World, Walks

  Mary Oliver (2006). “Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays”, p.67, Beacon Press

  43 Copy quote

• Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

  Mary Oliver

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Mary Oliver (2006). “Thirst: Poems”, p.61, Beacon Press

  245 Copy quote

• Because of the dog's joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?

  Mary Oliver

  Dog, Rivers, Honor

  Mary Oliver (2013). “Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition”, p.63, Penguin

  263 Copy quote

• Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

  Mary Oliver

  Inspirational, Life, Teacher

  FaceBook post by Mary Oliver from Mar 17, 2017

  215 Copy quote

• Things take the time they take. Don't worry.

  Mary Oliver

  Worry

  Mary Oliver (2015). “Felicity: Poems”, p.8, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

• To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

  Mary Oliver

  Love, Life, Relationship

  Mary Oliver (1992). “New and Selected Poems”, Beacon Press (MA)

  130 Copy quote

• One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began.

  Mary Oliver

  One Day

  Mary Oliver (1986). “Dream Work”, p.38, Atlantic Monthly Press

  184 Copy quote

• Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.

  Mary Oliver

  Attitude, Blessed, Needs

  Mary Oliver (2009). “Evidence: Poems”, p.21, Beacon Press

  28 Copy quote

• If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that's often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

  Mary Oliver

  Wise, Fighting, Love Is

  Mary Oliver (2017). “Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver”, p.68, Penguin

  230 Copy quote

• Though I play at the edges of knowing, truly I know our part is not knowing, but looking, and touching, and loving

  Mary Oliver

  Play, Knowing, Touching

  Mary Oliver (2004). “Why I Wake Early: New Poems”, p.5, Beacon Press

  23 Copy quote

• Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. (from “Mysteries, Yes”)

  Mary Oliver

  Inspirational, Distance, Thinking

  Mary Oliver (2009). “Evidence: Poems”, p.62, Beacon Press

  221 Copy quote

• I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.

  Mary Oliver

  Kindness, Believe, Singing

  Mary Oliver (2009). “Evidence: Poems”, p.43, Beacon Press

  142 Copy quote

• Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, Stay awhile.

  Mary Oliver

  Nature, Tree

  Mary Oliver (2006). “Thirst: Poems”, p.11, Beacon Press

  75 Copy quote

• If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.

  Mary Oliver

  Giving, Joy, Feels

  Mary Oliver (2010). “Swan: Poems and Prose Poems”, p.49, Beacon Press

  54 Copy quote

• I saw that worrying had come to nothing and gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.

  Mary Oliver

  Morning, Worry, Body

  Mary Oliver (2010). “Swan: Poems and Prose Poems”, p.46, Beacon Press

  29 Copy quote

• In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.

  Mary Oliver

  Fire, Two, Ability To Love

  Mary Oliver (2000). “Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  155 Copy quote

• All eternity is in the moment.

  Mary Oliver

  Moments, Eternity

  Mary Oliver (2004). “Blue Iris: Poems and Essays”, p.46, Beacon Press

  18 Copy quote

• The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees - to learn something by being nothing

  Mary Oliver

  Life, Dream, Lying

  Mary Oliver (2017). “Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver”, p.371, Penguin

  121 Copy quote

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