Mary Oliver Quotes

Don't think about what you've left behind. If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.

I don't miss it. I'm glad it happened, but I don't miss it.

Everything ends, people move on, they don't look back. It's how they should be.

It's too late and it's too bad, don't think of me.

The past is a closed door.

Don't worry about something going away; enjoy it while it's happening. And don't worry about something that's not even real.

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.

I said there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past-can't be restored.

Cherish what is dearest while you have it near you, and wait not till it is far away. Blind and deaf that we are; oh, think, if thou yet love anybody living, wait not till death sweep down the paltry little dust clouds and dissonances of the moment, and all be made at last so mournfully clear and beautiful, when it is too late.

Yesterday's gone on down the river and you can't get it back.

I've been really aware of how important it is to me to just stay in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts. Because that's all you've got. If it ends, I'll move on to doing something else. If it lasts, great.

I've been trying to really live in the moment because I will never get this part of it back. As soon as the movie comes out, everyone will turn it into what they believe it is, so I've really been trying to appreciate every minute of now. Because I know what's coming.

The past is over.

I think we all agree, the past is over.

Things die for a reason, and in Bungle's case, it was a lot of reasons. It was great while it lasted but not something I'd go crawling back to.

I won't cling to the past.

They're just memories now. Time to write them off.

I closed the box and put it in a closet. There is no real way to deal with everything we lose.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away

It's impossible to compete with the dead. I wished I could stop trying.

For the first time in a long time, he didn't think of the past. And of all the things he'd lost. He thought only of the present, and what he had. And how it was so much more than he deserved. And he prayed then that he would never, ever lose it.

His door is closed behind me. It's staying closed. He's letting me go. I think I've made myself very clear, but no ones stepping forward to stop me. A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that...that is what i needed to find out. And I did find out. And I'm sorry.