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

Mary Oliver Literature See all quotes by Mary Oliver →

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“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.”

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

“But also I say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness.”

“You want to cry aloud for your mistakes. But to tell the truth the world doesn't need any more of that sound.”

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

“Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”

Resonant Thoughts

"Oh this poor world, this poor, suffering, ignorant, fear-filled world! How can men be blind or deranged enough to think it is a good world? How can they be cold and satanic enough to be unmoved by the…"

— J. Howard Moore

Philosophy1862–1916

#mind

"At the end of the lesson, I presented The Crown of Thorns Project. Remember that Jesus said to the faithful Eleven, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end…"

— Kip McKean

Politics1954

#time

"I am a person who is unhappy with things as they stand. We cannot accept the world as it is. Each day we should wake up foaming at the mouth because of the injustice of things."

— Hugo Claus

Literature1929–2008

#life

"When a great politician dies, or any man who has filled a large space in the public mind, and made a noise in the world, the newspapers long ring with the event. But it is otherwise with the great thi…"

— Richard Holt Hutton

Journalism1826–1897

#science