Mary Oliver Quotes

You are young. So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But, listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.

Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.

The man who has many answersis often foundin the theaters of informationwhere he offers, graciously, his deep findings.While the man who has only questions, to comfort himself, makes music.

So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world.And live your life.

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.

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 would like people to remember of me, howinexhaustible was her mindfulness.

To interrupt the writer from the line of thought is to wake the dreamer from the dream. The dreamer cannot enter that dream, precisely as it was unfolding, ever again.

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.

You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesfor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

Look, hasn't my body already felt like the body of a flower?

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

Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble.A dog is a true and loving friend. A dogis also a hedonist.

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

the stars began to burnthrough the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voicewhich you slowlyrecognized as your own

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

I have a little dog who likes to nap with me.He climbs on my body and puts his face in my neck.He is sweeter than soap.He is more wonderful than a diamond necklace, which can't even bark...

Attention is the beginning of devotion.

I stood like Adam in his lonely gardenOn that first morning, shaken out of sleep, Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves, Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.