Top 380 Mary Oliver Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 3 of 8

101. “This is the lesson of age – events pass, things change, trauma fades, good fortune rises, fades, rises again but different.”

— Mary Oliver

102. “So every day So every day I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth of the ideas of God, one of which was you.”

— Mary Oliver

103. “The man who has many answers is often found in the theaters of information where he offers, graciously, his deep findings. While the man who has only questions, to comfort himself, makes music.”

— Mary Oliver

104. “The stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own.”

— Mary Oliver

105. “There are lots of ways to dance and to spin, sometimes it just starts my feet first then my entire body, I am spinning no one can see it but it is happening. I am so glad to be alive, I am so glad to be loving and loved. Even if I were close to the finish, even if I were at my final breath, I would be here to take a stand, bereft of such astonishments, but for them. If I were a Sufi for sure I would be one of the spinning kind.”

— Mary Oliver

106. “It’s not a competition, it’s a doorway.”

— Mary Oliver

107. “All things are meltable, and replaceable. Not at this moment, but soon enough, we are lambs and we are leaves, and we are stars, and the shining, mysterious pond water itself.”

— Mary Oliver

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

— Mary Oliver

109. “It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day.”

— Mary Oliver

110. “Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing – the reason they can fly.”

— Mary Oliver

111. “Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising.”

— Mary Oliver

112. “When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider the orderliness of the world.”

— Mary Oliver

113. “I walk in the world to love it.”

— Mary Oliver

114. “In the glare of your mind, be modest. And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.”

— Mary Oliver

115. “I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.”

— Mary Oliver

116. “Sunrise What is the name of the deep breath I would take over and over for all of us? Call it whatever you want, it is happiness, it is another one of the ways to enter fire.”

— Mary Oliver

117. “What we must do, I suppose, is to hope the world keeps its balance; what we are to do, however, with our hearts waiting and watching-truly I do not know.”

— Mary Oliver

118. “I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us...”

— Mary Oliver

119. “What misery to be afraid of death. What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.”

— Mary Oliver

120. “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.”

— Mary Oliver

121. “Far off in the red mangroves an alligator has heaved himself onto a hummock of grass and lies there, studying his poems.”

— Mary Oliver

122. “If there is life after the earth-life, will you come with me? Even then? Since we’re bound to be something, why not together.”

— Mary Oliver

123. “Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.”

— Mary Oliver

124. “As long as you’re dancing, you can break the rules.”

— Mary Oliver

125. “Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter.”

— Mary Oliver

126. “After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world.”

— Mary Oliver

127. “The multiplicity of forms! The hummingbird, the fox, the raven, the sparrow hawk, the otter, the dragonfly, the water lily! And on and on. It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day.”

— Mary Oliver

128. “Every word is a messenger. Some have wings; some are filled with fire; some are filled with death.”

— Mary Oliver

129. “I have a notion that if you are going to be spiritually curious, you better not get cluttered up with too many material things.”

— Mary Oliver

130. “Today I’m flying low and I’m not saying a word. I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep. The world goes on as it must, the bees in the garden rumbling a little, the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten. And so forth. But I’m taking the day off. Quiet as a feather. I hardly move though really I’m traveling a terrific distance. Stillness. One of the doors into the temple.”

— Mary Oliver

131. “Poetry isn’t a profession, it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.”

— Mary Oliver

132. “We can know a lot. And still, no doubt, there are rash and wonderful ideas brewing somewhere; there are many surprises yet to come.”

— Mary Oliver

133. “Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.”

— Mary Oliver

134. “If you notice anything, it leads you to notice more and more.”

— Mary Oliver

135. “The three ingredients of poetry: the mystery of the universe, spiritual curiosity, the energy of language.”

— Mary Oliver

136. “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.”

— Mary Oliver

137. “Today again I am hardly myself. It happens over and over.”

— Mary Oliver

138. “The end of life has its own nature, also worth our attention.”

— Mary Oliver

139. “In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.”

— Mary Oliver

140. “What I mean by spirituality is not theology, but attitude.”

— Mary Oliver

141. “When When it’s over, it’s over, and we don’t know any of us, what happens then. So I try not to miss anything. I think, in my whole life, I have never missed The full moon or the slipper of its coming back. Or, a kiss. Well, yes, especially a kiss.”

— Mary Oliver

142. “What does it mean, say the words, that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?”

— Mary Oliver

143. “Over and over in the butterfly we see the idea of transcendence. In the forest we see not the inert but the aspiring. In water that departs forever and forever returns, we experience eternity.”

— Mary Oliver

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

— Mary Oliver

145. “The sea isn’t a place but a fact, and a mystery...”

— Mary Oliver

146. “Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirit, with the fragrance of the fields and the freshness of the oceans which you have made, and help me to hear and to hold in all dearness those exacting and wonderful words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying: Follow me.”

— Mary Oliver

147. “He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.”

— Mary Oliver

148. “Today is a day like any other: twenty-four hours, a little sunshine, a little rain. Listen, says ambition, nervously shifting her weight from one boot to another – why don’t you get going? For there I am, in the mossy shadows, under the trees. 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.”

— Mary Oliver

149. “Oh, yesterday, that one, we all cry out. Oh, that one! How rich and possible everything was! How ripe, ready, lavish, and filled with excitement – how hopeful we were on those summer days, under the clean, white racing clouds. Oh, yesterday!”

— Mary Oliver

150. “I think this is the prettiest world – so long as you don’t mind a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?”

— Mary Oliver