Mary Oliver was an extraordinary American poet who touched the hearts of millions of readers throughout the world.Her poetry transcends time and culture. She wrote about a lot of things including nature, life, love, animals, etc.We’ve curated a list of the best Mary Oliver poem quotes for you to enjoy. If you want to read more quotes from poets, then check out these quotes from E E Cummings and Rupi Kaur.Best Mary Oliver QuotesHere are some of the best quotes from palpable and redemptive Mary Oliver poetry books.‘Knowledge has entertained me and it has shaped me and it has failed me.‘‘Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.‘‘In the beginning, I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed.‘‘There are things you can’t reach. But you can reach out to them, and all day long.‘‘Sing, if you can sing, and it not still be musical inside yourself.‘‘When will you have a little pity for every soft thing that walks through the world, yourself included.‘‘Maybe death isn’t darkness, after all.‘‘Poetry is a life-cherishing force.‘‘You want to cry aloud for your mistakes. But to tell the truth, the world doesn’t need anymore of that sound.‘‘Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.‘‘It’s not a competition, it’s a doorway.‘‘If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel, don’t hesitate. Give it in.‘‘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.‘‘He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.‘‘Watch, now, how I start the day-in happiness, in kindness.‘‘Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.‘‘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.‘‘We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.‘‘Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules.‘‘You have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about.‘‘Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile, the world goes on.‘‘I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.‘‘There was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world.‘‘This is the first, the wildest, and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.‘‘Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell.‘‘But I also say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive.‘‘I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.‘‘I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.‘‘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.‘‘To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.‘‘Let me keep company always with those who say ‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.‘‘Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. ‘‘Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.‘‘And to tell the truth I don’t want to let go of the wrists of idleness, I don’t want to sell my life for money, I don’t even want to come in out of the rain.‘‘Listen, says ambition, nervously shifting her weight from one boot to another—why don’t you get going?‘‘Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?‘‘Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers.‘Mary Oliver Nature QuotesHere are some Mary Oliver quotes from her poems about nature.‘For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.‘‘For some things there are no wrong seasons. Which is what I dream of for me.‘‘It is the nature of stone to be satisfied. It is the nature of water to want to be somewhere else.‘‘I think, in my whole life, I have never missed the full moon.‘‘Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep going.‘‘I thought the earth remembered me.‘‘I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.‘‘I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—that the light is everything.‘‘I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything – other people, trees, clouds.‘‘I’d rather write about polar bears than people.‘‘Because my life without you would be a place of parched and broken trees.‘‘One could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness.‘‘Snow was falling, so much like stars.‘‘For how many years have you gone through the house, shutting the windows, while the rain was still five miles away.‘‘In ten thousand years, maybe, a piece of the mountain will fall.‘‘Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields… Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.‘‘I want to see how many stars are still in the sky. That we have smothered for years now, a century at least.‘‘All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness.‘‘Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.‘‘Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life.‘‘My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—equal seekers of sweetness.‘‘Far off in the red mangroves, an alligator has heaved himself into a hummock of grass and lies there, studying his poems.‘‘But if I were a lily, I think I would wait all day for the green face of hummingbird to touch me.‘‘As you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds.‘‘Today is a day like any other: twenty-four hours, a little sunshine, a little rain.‘‘I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees, with my mind being filled with things of little importance.Mary Oliver Quotes On LifeHere are some quotes about life from Mary Oliver’s poetry. These poet quotes about life and cherishing being where you are will fill you with joy.‘I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery.‘‘It is a serious thing, just to be alive on this fresh morning, in this broken world.‘‘I acknowledge my feeling and gratitude for life by praising the world and whoever made all these things.‘‘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.‘‘Still life has some possibility left.‘‘Listen–are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?‘‘Instructions for living a life: pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.‘‘You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.‘‘There is no nothingness- with these little atoms that run around too little for us to see. But put together, they make something. And that too me is a miracle.‘‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?‘‘We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, these two. Housed as they are in the same body.‘‘Joy is not made to be a crumb.‘‘We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left.‘‘There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.‘‘Don’t hesitate. If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.‘‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?‘‘I know many lives worth living.‘Mary Oliver Love QuotesHere are some famous poetry quotes about love from Mary Oliver. In her poems, quotes about love are abundant, so here are some of the most beautiful ones.‘From the complications of loving you I think there is no end or return.‘‘You do not have to be good. you do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.‘‘I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us.‘‘You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.‘‘Also I wanted to be able to love. And we all know how that one goes, don’t we? Slowly.‘‘It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.‘‘Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.‘‘If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.‘‘Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.‘‘There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But, who wants easier?‘‘Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.‘‘Listen. whatever you see and love- that’s where you are.‘Mary Oliver Quotes On AgingHere are some quotes about aging from the best unimaginable Mary Oliver poems.‘What misery to be afraid of death. What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.‘‘I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.‘‘I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.‘‘When it is over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real.‘‘I was the bride-groom, taking the world into my arms.‘‘When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.‘‘I want to be improbable, beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.‘‘I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome.‘‘The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees, to learn something by being nothing.‘‘To cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world.‘‘Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled.‘‘Sometimes I really believe it, that I am going to save my life a little.‘‘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.‘Mary Oliver Dog QuotesHere are some Mary Oliver quotes about the relationship between people and dogs.‘A dog is adorable and noble, a dog is a true and loving friend. A dog is also a hedonist.‘‘A dog comes to you and lives with you in your own house, but you do not therefore own her, as you do not own the rain, or the trees, or the laws which pertain to them.‘‘You may not agree, you may not care, but if you are holding this book you should know that of all the sights I love in this world, and there are plenty, very near the top of the list is this one: dogs without leashes.‘‘We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.‘‘It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old, or so it feels.‘‘And it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also.‘‘He is sweeter than soap. He is more wonderful than a diamond necklace, which can’t even bark.‘‘I have a little dog who likes to nap with me. He climbs on my body and puts his face in my neck.‘‘A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing.‘‘It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born.‘‘Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.‘‘What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?‘Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Mary Oliver quotes then why not take a look at Warsan Shire quotes, or Keats quotes.
Mary Oliver was an extraordinary American poet who touched the hearts of millions of readers throughout the world.
