Mary Oliver
American poet whose work — rooted in long contemplative walks through the woods and dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts — became one of the most beloved bodies of contemplative literature of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in 1935 in Maple Heights, Ohio, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive in 1984 and the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems in 1992. Her two questions — 'What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' and 'Are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?' — have become touchstones of contemporary spiritual life. Her work blends close-watching of the natural world with a deep contemplative attention that has been compared to Rilke, Whitman, and the great wisdom traditions she rarely named.
quotes in library
Quotes by Mary Oliver
109 quotes“What is the greatest gift? Could it be the world itself — the rivers, the way the mountains lift?”
“And now I know the difference between a life of quiet and a life of joy.”
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
“Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight.”
“And the question is, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?”
“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.”
“Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
“Some questions you can answer only by living the answer.”
“Things take the time they take. Don't worry.”
“How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?”
“There is little to say but everything to do.”
“Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
“Let me keep company always with those who say 'Look!' and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.”
“My work is loving the world.”
“Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters.”
“Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy.”
“And the speeches of the world! How various, how astonishing!”
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers