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If you’re looking for Mary Oliver quotes that touch your heart and calm your soul, you’ve come to the right place. Mary Oliver’s words are gentle yet powerful — they teach us to live slowly, notice the beauty around us, and appreciate every moment. Her poetry connects deeply with nature, life, love, and self-discovery. Below are seven peaceful sections filled with her most inspiring quotes, each ending with one best pick that captures the essence of her wisdom.

🍃 Mary Oliver Quotes on Life

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.
Attention is the beginning of devotion.
Life is about noticing the small miracles that make it beautiful.
The world offers itself to your imagination.
To live in this world, you must love what is mortal and let it go when the time comes.
Every day is a chance to start again.
Be astonished by the ordinary.
The point is not to live forever, but to notice that you are alive.

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

🌸 Mary Oliver Quotes on Nature

The sun rises every day, reminding us to begin again.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention.
The grass never sleeps.
The earth has its music for those who listen.
Wild roses teach us to be brave.
The trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.
Every morning, the world is created anew.
The ocean is alive and speaks to those who are quiet.
The wind whispers lessons no teacher can.
Let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
The woods remind us that silence is holy.
The river knows everything about patience.
Nature keeps no secrets — it simply is.

Best Pick: I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention.

💖 Mary Oliver Quotes on Love

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.
You can have the life you want if you love it enough to protect it.
The heart that breaks is the heart that grows.
Love is not always easy, but it always matters.
I believe in kindness — also in mischief.
The world needs tenderness more than anything.
Love is the thread that ties all things together.
The act of loving is the act of living.
To love is to risk being changed.
Love calls you to pay attention.
Love is the quiet voice that stays when all else fades.
Every act of kindness is an act of love.

Best Pick: 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 Quotes on Gratitude and Joy

Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Every morning is a new chance to be grateful.
Happiness is a quiet gratitude for being alive.
When it’s over, I want to say I was a bride married to amazement.
Gratitude turns ordinary days into blessings.
Be thankful for small things; they are the heartbeat of joy.
Even the storm has beauty if you look closely.
Joy is found in paying attention.
Every breath is a small miracle.
Gratitude is the prayer of the heart.
I choose joy because it makes the world brighter.
Life is not about having more, but noticing more.
The simple days are the best ones.

Best Pick: Joy is not made to be a crumb.

🌙 Mary Oliver Quotes on the Soul and Spirituality

To pray is to notice.
Holiness lies in paying attention.
The soul thrives on wonder.
Be still and the world will whisper to you.
Maybe the soul is meant to be astonished.
I tell you this to break your heart — by which I mean it opens and never closes again.
God is in the details of every petal and breath.
The spirit sings in the quiet morning.
Everything we love is part of our spiritual life.
The soul’s work is to stay awake.
The divine is present in every small thing.
Stillness is a kind of prayer.
Gratitude is how the soul speaks.

Best Pick: To pray is to notice.

🦋 Mary Oliver Quotes on Change and Growth

Change is the heart’s way of staying alive.
Sometimes breaking is how we bloom.
To live in this world, you must learn to let go beautifully.
The trees teach us how to release what no longer serves us.
Growth is slow, like a flower reaching for the sun.
The storm passes, and the light always returns.
Let go, and life will surprise you.
Every ending is the start of something new.
To grow is to soften, not to harden.
Be patient — even the stars took time to shine.
Life changes when you begin to notice it.
There is a time for everything under the sky.
The journey is where the lessons hide.

Best Pick: Sometimes breaking is how we bloom.

🌼 Mary Oliver Quotes on Purpose and Inspiration

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
The dream of my life is to live with wonder.
The work of the artist is to notice.
Life is calling — don’t miss it.
There is only one question: how to love this world.
Pay attention — that’s how the light gets in.
Inspiration hides in ordinary things.
The fire burns only when you feed it with purpose.
The gift is to live awake.
Let the world change you softly.
To inspire is to awaken the sleeping heart.

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

🌿 Conclusion

Mary Oliver’s words remind us that the world is full of quiet miracles. Her quotes teach us to pay attention, to love deeply, and to find joy in the simplest things. Every line she wrote feels like a gentle touch from nature — full of light, hope, and peace.