Mary Oliver’s words have a magical way of slowing us down, guiding us back to the moment, and reconnecting us with the natural world and our inner wisdom.
If you’re looking for soulful inspiration or clarity in your everyday life, her poetry offers bite-sized insights that speak directly to the heart.
This collection of Mary Oliver quotes is here to help you find peace, purpose, and presence in a fast-paced world.
If you’re navigating love, loss, or just trying to stay grounded, let her lyrical wisdom point the way forward.
Mary Oliver Quotes on Life
🌱 Life is precious and fleeting. Let these quotes remind you to live fully, mindfully, and with open-hearted awareness.
- 🌿 Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life
- 🌞 To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: love what is mortal
- 🌊 Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable
- 🌾 What misery to be afraid of death
- 🌻 I believe in kindness. Also in mischief
- 🌱 You can have the other words—chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity—I’ll take grace
- 🌼 Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it
- 🌤️ The patterns of our lives reveal us
- 🌴 Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed
- 🌷 I simply do not distinguish between work and play
- 🍃 Joy is not made to be a crumb
- 🌟 Don’t worry, sooner or later, we all join the circus
- 🍂 Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight
- 🌬️ There are things you can’t reach, but you can reach out to them
- 🌈 Attention is the beginning of devotion
Mary Oliver Quotes Nature
🍃 Nature was Mary Oliver’s greatest teacher. These quotes celebrate the sacred beauty found in the natural world.
- 🌳 I go down to the shore in the morning and depending on the hour the waves are rolling in or moving out
- 🐦 I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time
- 🌲 I thought the earth remembered me
- 🌸 The world offers itself to your imagination
- 🦋 You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves
- 🌻 I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows
- 🌊 The sea isn’t a place but a fact
- 🪵 Every morning I walk like this around the pond
- 🐚 I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention
- 🪺 The birds don’t alter space; they reveal it
- 🌾 Snow was falling, so much like stars
- 🪶 The swan is not afraid of the dark
- 🍂 When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement
- 🐿️ I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone
- 🌄 I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time
Mary Oliver Quotes on Love
💖 Oliver wrote about love with a reverent, grounded tenderness. These quotes explore love as an act of devotion and presence.
- ❤️ Love yourself. Then forget it. Then love the world
- 💌 There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving
- 💕 Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers
- 💗 I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing
- 💓 You too can be carved anew by the details of your devotion
- 💞 Love is a flower that opens with the light
- 🌹 Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed
- 💫 All eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides
- 🥀 Love, and be loud about it
- 💘 The heart’s memory is a powerful thing
- 💑 Love stays
- 🌺 In the beginning, I was so young and such a stranger to myself
- 💐 To love what is lovely, and will not last
- 🫶 The soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness
- 💮 Love yourself first, then offer what’s left
Gratitude Mary Oliver Quotes
🙏 Gratitude flows through Oliver’s work. These quotes awaken a quiet appreciation for life’s simplest moments.
- 🌅 I simply do not distinguish between work and play
- 🕊️ I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world
- 🌼 Joy is not made to be a crumb
- ☀️ Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled
- 🌾 Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight
- 🪺 To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work
- 🍃 Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed
- 🌟 Attention is the beginning of devotion
- 🌤️ Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination
- 🍄 I want to think again of dangerous and noble things
- 🌺 There is only one question: how to love this world
- 💫 Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable
- 🕯️ I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time
- 🐦 Be ignited, or be gone
- 🌸 The sun is burning. Each second I live is a second I burn
Mary Oliver Quotes About Life
🌞 These reflections illuminate the depth, beauty, and spiritual weight of simply being alive.
- 🌿 To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work
- 🌊 Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life
- 🌾 I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world
- 🌻 Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it
- 🌱 Joy is not made to be a crumb
- 🌬️ You do not have to be good
- 🌺 Every morning the world is created
- 🌟 All important ideas must include the trees
- 🍂 The world offers itself to your imagination
- 🌤️ It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning
- 🐚 I thought the earth remembered me
- 🐦 Whoever you are, no matter how lonely
- 🍃 I believe in kindness
- 🌄 The patterns of our lives reveal us
- 🕊️ My work is loving the world
Mary Oliver Quotes About Nature
🌳 Here’s a deeper dive into her communion with the natural world—observant, reverent, and transformative.
- 🌲 I believe in the forest, and in the meadow
- 🐿️ The world has no mind to lose
- 🌸 I could not be a poet without the natural world
- 🌄 The morning is always new
- 🦋 The earth is soft and lovely underfoot
- 🌻 Each day I wake with a thirst for the wild
- 🐦 Nature is singing always
- 🌊 I want to step through the door full of curiosity
- 🌬️ I want to be part of the light
- 🍃 The rivers are my brothers
- 🌅 The owl’s cry opens the morning
- 🐚 I go among trees and sit still
- 🪶 Softest of mornings, hello
- 🌾 I am a student of the blackberries and the stars
- 🐛 Nothing is too small to be wonder-filled
Mary Oliver Quotes on Gratitude
🧘 Let these meditations inspire you to notice and give thanks for the quiet miracles of ordinary life.
- 🪷 I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world
- 🌤️ Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled
- 🌅 Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed
- 🌸 Every morning the world is created
- 🕊️ I believe in kindness
- 🌾 All things are inventions of holiness
- 🍃 Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination
- ☀️ Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it
- 🌟 The face of the world is filled with miracles
- 🌺 Joy is not made to be a crumb
- 🐚 I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time
- 🌬️ The world is full of shining
- 🪶 Each little thing is a spark of the divine
- 🐦 To have the sense of one’s place is not a small thing
- 🌅 My loyalty is to the earth
Conclusion
Mary Oliver’s quotes offer more than inspiration—they offer a way to be.
Her poetic voice reminds us to slow down, observe the world with reverence, and live each moment with clarity and compassion.
If you’re looking to reflect on love, life, gratitude, or the wild beauty of nature, her words provide the compass for a more meaningful journey.
