Mary Oliver Quotes

Life is hardly more than a fraction of a second. Such a little time to prepare oneself for eternity!

You get rid of the fear of death by understanding that it is an integral fact of our existence. You do that through will and reason.

Time is but the shadow of the world upon the background of Eternity.

I have wondered about time all my life.

If you want immortality, then deny form. Whatever has form has mortality. Beyond form is the formless, the immortal.

You are permanent, but this life is not.

If everything that ever lived is dead, and everything alive is gonna die...where does the sacred part come in?

Your faith is very important. I have done the math, and you are going to be dead a whole lot longer that you will be alive.

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.

Time," the Captain said, "is not what you think." He sat down next to Eddie. "Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning.

A human life is just a heartbeat in heaven.

…Perhaps this momentary life of ours is only the light that divides our infinite origin from our infinite end.

I never thought about heaven per se. I think when you're dead, you're dead. If anything happens after that, you just hope you don't go to hell.

But you're dead,' said Harry. 'Oh, yes,' said Dumbledore matter-of-factly. 'Then... am I dead too?' 'Ah,' said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. 'That is the question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not.

We die, and we do not die.

When you die, you are extinguished. From being you will be transformed to non-being. A god does not necessarily dwell among our capricious atoms.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

There's nothing great Nor small, has said a poet of our day, Whose voice will ring beyond the curfew of eve And not be thrown out by the matin's bell.

Man, I'm just into Buddhism, and I'm at peace with the fact that me, as this person, probably gonna not be around. Think about a hermit crab, okay? And it's a shell. It's like, they go from one shell to the next. And that's what I am. I'm just a hermit crab changin' shells.

O Time! Time! how it brings forth and devours! And the roaring flood of existence rushes on forever similar, forever changing!

Life is only precious because it ends, kid.

When I touch that flower, I am not merely touching that flower. I am touching infinity. That little flower existed long before there were human beings on this earth. It will continue to exist for thousands, yes, millions of years to come.

Death is only a small interruption.