“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination.”
Source: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
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Famous Mary Oliver Quotes
Source: Evidence: Poems
Source: Dream Work
“Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.”
Source: Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems
Source: Dream Work
Source: Why I Wake Early: New Poems
“Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine”
Source: Dream Work
Source: West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems
“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
Source: Dream Work
“Every day I walk out into the world / to be dazzled, then to be reflective.”
Source: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
Source: New and selected poems
Source: The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays
“Wild sings the bird of the heart in the forests of our lives.”
Source: New and Selected Poems, Volume Two
“I climb, I backtrack. I float. I ramble my way home.”
Source: West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems
Source: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
“All eternity is in the moment.”
Source: Blue Iris: Poems and Essays
“Isn’t it wonderful the way the world holds both the deeply serious, and the unexpectedly mirthful?”
“Why should I not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside, looking into the shining world?”
Source: New and Selected Poems, Volume Two
Source: A Thousand Mornings: Poems
“What I have done is learn to love and learn to be loved. That didn't come easy.”
“Things take the time they take. Don't worry.”
Source: Felicity: Poems
“If you have ever gone into the woods with me, I must love you very much.”
Source: Blue Iris: Poems and Essays
Source: New and Selected Poems, Volume One
“You must not ever stop being whimsical.”
Source: Upstream: Selected Essays
“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.”
Source: Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition
“A dog is adorable and noble, a dog is a true and loving friend. A dog is also a hedonist.”
Source: Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition
“In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.”
“One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear.”
“People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work.”
“Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious.”
“Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, Stay awhile.”
Source: Thirst: Poems