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Felicity

Mary Oliver

Top 10 Best Quotes

“Everything that was broken has forgotten its brokenness. I live now in a sky-house, through every window the sun. Also your presence. Our touching, our stories. Earthy and holy both. How can this be, but it is. Every day has something in it whose name is Forever.”

“There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled. Like, telling someone you love them. Or giving your money away, all of it. Your heart is beating, isn't it? You're not in chains, are you? There is nothing more pathetic than caution when headlong might save a life, even, possibly, your own.”

“The Pond" August of another summer, and once again I am drinking the sun and the lilies again are spread across the water. I know now what they want is to touch each other. I have not been here for many years during which time I kept living my life. Like the heron, who can only croak, who wishes he could sing, I wish I could sing. A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate. This is how it has been, and this is how it is: All my life I have been able to feel happiness, except whatever was not happiness, which I also remember. Each of us wears a shadow. But just now it is summer again and I am watching the lilies bow to each other, then slide on the wind and the tug of desire, close, close to one another, Soon now, I'll turn and start for home. And who knows, maybe I'll be singing.”

“Where has this cold come from? “It comes from the death of your friend.” Will I always, from now on, be this cold? “No, it will diminish. But always it will be with you.” What is the reason for it? “Wasn’t your friendship always as beautiful as a flame?”

“No, I'd never been to this country before. No, I didn't know where the roads would lead me. No, I didn't intend to turn back.”

“If you’re John Muir you want trees to live among. If you’re Emily, a garden will do. Try to find the right place for yourself. If you can’t find it, at least dream of it. When one is alone and lonely, the body gladly lingers in the wind or the rain, or splashes into the cold river, or pushes through the ice-crusted snow. Anything that touches. God, or the gods, are invisible, quite understandable. But holiness is visible, entirely.”

“Poems arrive ready to begin. Poets are only the transportation.”

“I don’t want to lose a single thread from the intricate brocade of this happiness .I want to remember everything.”

“I did think, let's go about this slowly. This is important. This should take some really deep thought. We should take small thoughtful steps. But, bless us, we didn't.”

“So, be slow if you must, but let the heart still play its true part. Love still as once you loved, deeply and without patience. Let God and the world know you are grateful.That the gift has been given.”

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Book Keywords:

august, nature, poetry, loneliness, remembering-happiness, dreams, nostalgia, place

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