I try to be good but sometimes a person just has to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be. It's impossible not to remember wild an want it back.
Mary OliverRead
Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the fleeting nature of life and the importance of making the most of it.
Mary Oliver's quote reflects on the inevitability of death and the urgency it imparts to our lives. It provokes introspection about how we choose to spend our time and urges us to embrace the uniqueness and value of our existence, encouraging us to pursue our passions and meaningful endeavors while we can.
Themes
LifeDeathPurposeMeaningExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a graduation speech to inspire students about their future.
More from Mary Oliver
All quotes →At the time I was growing up, literature was involved with the so-called confessional poets. And I was not interested in that. I did not think that specific and personal perspective functioned well for the reader at all.
Mary OliverRead
I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished.
Mary OliverRead
For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.
Mary OliverRead
If I have any lasting worth, it will be because I have tried to make people remember what the Earth is meant to look like.
Mary OliverRead
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.
Mary OliverRead
Similar quotes
Don't get up from the feast of life without paying for your share of it.
William Ralph IngeRead
Life... is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangey-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have half a one for breakfast.
Douglas AdamsRead
Did not one spend the first half of one's days in dreams of happiness and the second half in regrets and terrors?
Emile ZolaRead
Life is for living and working at. If you find anything or anybody a bore, the fault is in yourself.
Elizabeth IRead
All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up--that growing is an ever ongoing process.
M. Scott PeckRead
There is really only one way to deal with Misery. Accept her presence. Like most experiences in life, we must acknowledge the passage gracefully and let her move through our lives because she brings with her a hidden gift.
Sarah Ban BreathnachRead