653 Quotes by Mary Oliver

The poem in which the reader does not feel himself or herself a participant is a lecture, listened to from an uncomfortable chair, in a stuffy room, inside a building.

When it over, I want to say:all my lifeI was a bride married to amazement.I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.When it's over, I don't want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular,and real.I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,or full of argument.I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.from "When the death comes

I am a performing artist; I perform admiration.'Come with me', I want my poems to say. 'And do the same

I am a performing artist; I perfomr admiration.'Come with me', I want my poems to say. 'And do the same

Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

Here’s a story, and you don’t have to visit manyhouses to find it. One person is talking,the other one is not really listening.Someone can look like they are but they’reactually thinking about something theywant to say, or their minds are justwandering. Or they’re looking at thatlittle box people hold in their hands thesedays. And people get discouraged, so theyquit trying. And the very quiet people,you may have noticed, are often the sadpeople.

You must never stop being whimsical.

...Admiring is easy, but affinity, that does take some time.

Every year the hatchlings wake in the swaying branches,in the silver baskets,and love the world.Is it necessary to say any more?Have you heard them singing in the wind, above the final fields?Have you ever been so happy in your life?