Mary Oliver

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

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

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

“It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world.”

“I want to be braver and more honest about my own happiness.”

“But I also say this: that light is an invitation to happiness.”

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

“I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”

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

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.”

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force... something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”

“The world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.”

“I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.”

“To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.”

“I got saved by the beauty of the world.”

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it.”

“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”