Mary Oliver Quotes About Giving

Quotes about: Giving

• You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.

  Mary Oliver

  Life, Responsibility, Giving

  Mary Oliver (1995). “Blue Pastures”, Harcourt

• 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

• 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

• Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing - soften their roughest edges - to accommodate themselves toward a group response.

  Mary Oliver

  Giving Up, Writing, Groups

• Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree... Of course I have to give up, but by then I'm half crazy with the wonder of it--the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.

  Mary Oliver

  Laughter, Giving Up, Crazy

  Mary Oliver (2012). “A Thousand Mornings: Poems”, p.11, Penguin

• And it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old-or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.

  Mary Oliver

  Dog, Grief, Giving

  Mary Oliver (2013). “Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition”, p.62, Penguin

• And over one more set of hills, along the sea, the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness and are giving it back to the world. If I had another life I would want to spend it all on some unstinting happiness.

  Mary Oliver

  Flower, Sea, Giving

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

• Love, love, love, says Percy. And hurry as fast as you can along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust. Then, go to sleep. Give up your body heat, your beating heart. Then, trust.

  Mary Oliver

  Beach, Giving Up, Heart

  Mary Oliver (2008). “The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays”, p.77, Beacon Press

• The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth, it can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward; it can give gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet-talk entirely. As I can too, and so, no doubt, can you, and you.

  Mary Oliver

  Sweet, Lying, Sea

  Mary Oliver (2012). “A Thousand Mornings: Poems”, p.41, Penguin

• I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings.

  Mary Oliver

  Reading, Writing, Years

• It was not a choice of writing or not writing. It was a choice of loving my life or not loving my life. To keep writing was always a first priority.... I worked probably 25 years by myself.... Just writing and working, not trying to publish much. Not giving readings. A longer time than people really are willing to commit before they want to go public.

  Mary Oliver

  Reading, Writing, Years

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin