Mary Oliver Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Mary Oliver on Wise Famous Quotes.
My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.
I want to be braver and more honest about my life. When you're sexually abused, there's a lot of damage.
And now you'll be telling stories of my coming back and they won't be false, and they won't be true but they'll be real
We can know a lot. And still, no doubt, there are rash and wonderful ideas brewing somewhere; there are many surprises yet to come.
No, I'd never been to this country
before. No, I didn't know where the roads
would lead me. No, I didn't intend to
turn back.
before. No, I didn't know where the roads
would lead me. No, I didn't intend to
turn back.
All my life
I have been restless-
I have felt there is something
more wonderful than gloss-
than wholeness-
than staying at home.
I have been restless-
I have felt there is something
more wonderful than gloss-
than wholeness-
than staying at home.
I was very careful never to take an interesting job. If you have an interesting job, you get interested in it.
The three ingredients of poetry: the mystery of the universe, spiritual curiosity, the energy of language.
I wanted to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know, whoever I was, I was alive for a little while.
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.
Belief isn't always easy.
But this much I have learned
if not enough else
to live with my eyes open.
But this much I have learned
if not enough else
to live with my eyes open.
The Uses of Sorrow
(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.
It
(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.
It
Things take the time they take.
Don't worry.
How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?
Don't worry.
How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?
What good does it do
to lie all day in the sun
loving what's easy?
It never grew easy,
but at least I grew peaceful:
to lie all day in the sun
loving what's easy?
It never grew easy,
but at least I grew peaceful:
When death comes ... .
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what it's going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what it's going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.
I am a performing artist; I perform admiration.
'Come with me', I want my poems to say. 'And do the same
'Come with me', I want my poems to say. 'And do the same
I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.
My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness.
This is the first, wildest, and wisest thing I know, that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attention.
We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy.
Knowing as we must, how the vivacity of what was is married to the vitality of what will be? I don't say it's easy, but what else will do
Now and again there's a moment,
when the heart cries aloud:
yes, I am willing to be
that wild darkness,
that long, blue body of light.
when the heart cries aloud:
yes, I am willing to be
that wild darkness,
that long, blue body of light.
I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple--or a green field--a place to enter, and in which to feel.
The natural world is the old river that runs through everything, and I think poets will forever fish along its shores.
What does barbed wire feel like when you grip it, as though it were a plate and a fork, or a handful of flowers?
Oh, I would like to live in an empty house, with vines for walls, and a carpet of grass. No planks, no plastic, no fiberglass.
You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it.