And I say to my heart: rave on.

Mary Oliver

I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.

Mary Oliver

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

Mary Oliver

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.

Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began....

Mary Oliver

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

Mary Oliver

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

Mary Oliver

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

Mary Oliver

In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.

Mary Oliver

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

Mary Oliver

I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone, and I sort of succeeded.

Mary Oliver

So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray.

Mary Oliver