I am so happy to be alive in this world I would like to live forever, but I am content not to. Seeing what I have seen has filled me; believing what … - Mary Oliver

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

Listen, the heart-shackles are not, as you think, death, illness, pain, unrequited hope, not loneliness, but lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety, selfishness

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?