“Two or three times in my life I discovered love. Each time it seemed to solve everything.”

— Mary Oliver, Red Bird, 2008

About Mary Oliver

1935 – 2019

American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner (1984), known for her nature poetry, including 'The Summer Day'.

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

“You do not have to be good.”

“You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

“There is not love of life without despair about life.”

“When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.”

“The heart of life is a sphere quiet and serene, and the star that shines therein is fixed for evermore.”

“The mind weighs and measures but it is the spirit that reaches the heart of life and embraces the secret.”

“Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”

“I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves, but by love.”