653 Quotes by Mary Oliver

I am burdened with anxiety. Anxiety for the lamb with his bitter future, anxiety for my own body, and, not least, anxiety for my own soul. You can fool a lot of yourself but you can’t fool the soul. That worrier.

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world and the responsibilities of your life.

Be what you are, of the earth, but a dreamer too.

And consider, always, every day, the determination of the grass to grow despite the unending obstacles.

How heron comes It is a negligence of the mind not to notice how at dusk heron comes to the pond and stands there in his death robes, perfect servant of the system, hungry, his eyes full of attention, his wings pure light.

That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. “Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?

I am, myself, three selves at least. To begin with, there is the child I was. Certainly I am not that child anymore! Yet, distantly, or sometimes not so distantly, I can hear that child’s voice – I can feel its hope, or its distress. It has not vanished. Powerful, egotistical, insinuating – its presence rises, in memory, or from the steamy river of dreams. It is not gone, not by a long shot. It is with me in the present hour. It will be with me in the grave.

I am so vast, uncertain and strange.

I want the poem to ask something and, at its best moments, I want the question to remain unanswered.