Mary Oliver Quotes

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

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

I would like people to remember of me, how
inexhaustible was her mindfulness.

Do you think the wren ever dreams of a better house?

Sleep comes its little while. Then I wake in the valley of midnight or three a.m. to the first fragrances of spring which is coming, all by itself, no matter what.

There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled.
Like, telling someone you love them.
Or giving your money away, all of it.

Your heart is beating, isn't it?
You're not in chains, are you?

There is nothing more pathetic than caution
when headlong might save a life,
even, possibly, your own.

Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.

"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."

I thought:
maybe death
isn’t darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us — as soft as feathers — that we are instantly weary
of looking, and looking, and shut our eyes,
not without amazement,
and let ourselves be carried,
as through the translucence of mica,
to the river
that is without the least dapple or shadow — that is nothing but light — scalding, aortal light — in which we are washed and washed
out of our bones. — White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field

It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.

Sunrise

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

determined to do the only thing you could do — determined to save the only life you could save.

Over and over in the butterfly we see the idea of transcendence. In the forest we see not the inert but the aspiring. In water that departs forever and forever returns, we experience eternity.

You must never stop being whimsical.

There are as many worlds as there are imaginers.
- The Boat (in “Winter Hours”)