“the lost sense that we play out our lives as part of a greater story” — David Whyte Life Copy Share Image
I returned to poetry as a more precise way to describe the world, more precise than science. — David Whyte Poetry Copy Share Image
The courageous conversation is the one you don't want to have. — David Whyte Communication Copy Share Image
Heartbreak is how we mature... There is almost no path a human being can follow that does not lead to heartbreak. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
We are the only species on earth capable of preventing our own flowering. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. — David Whyte Community Copy Share Image
A sure sign of a soul-based workplace is excitement, enthusiasm, real passion; not manufactured passion, but real involvement. And there's very little… — David Whyte Enthusiasm Copy Share Image
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
If in your mind it was possible to take a year's sabbatical from work to reassess your life, what would you do… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
and how we are all preparing for that abrupt waking, and that calling, and that moment we have to say yes, except… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but… — David Whyte Art Copy Share Image
It might be liberating to think of human life as informed by losses and disappearances as much as by gifted appearances, allowing… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“To quote a Shakespearean cliché, repeated to death because it is so stubbornly true: “All the world’s a stage.” Work is theater.… — David Whyte Death Copy Share Image
You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds Except the one… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. The kettle is singing even as it pours you a… — David Whyte Aloneness Copy Share Image
It's my contention that there is no sincere path a human being can take without breaking his or her heart...so it can… — David Whyte Breaking heart Copy Share Image
Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous,… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self: the ultimate touchstone is witness, the… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“You must learn one thing: the world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one… — David Whyte Aloneness Copy Share Image
The tragedy with velocity as the answer to complexity is that, after awhile, you cannot see or comprehend anything that is not… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“Work, like marriage, is a place you can lose yourself more easily perhaps than finding yourself. It is a place full of… — David Whyte Communication Copy Share Image
Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness sustains us in our work and at the… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for a while. Plain sailing… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“At the beginning of the twenty-first century, to feel alone or want to be alone is deeply unfashionable: to admit to feeling… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“In some ways Coleridge committed a form of artistic suicide attempting to solve the complicated mystery he saw in the flocking starlings.… — David Whyte Art Copy Share Image
Eventually we realize that not knowing what to do is just as real and just as useful as knowing what to do.… — David Whyte Attention Copy Share Image
“All the evidence from the science of complexity says that given certain clear parameters...communities or teams will become self-organizing. They will be… — David Whyte Organizational-development Copy Share Image
“The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no… — David Whyte Poetry Copy Share Image
Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the… — David Whyte Ability Copy Share Image
The greatest tragedy is to live out someone else's life thinking it was your own. — David Whyte Life Copy Share Image
The fear of loss, in one form or another, is the motivator behind all conscious and unconscious dishonesties. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“FRIENDSHIP is a mirror to presence and a testament to forgiveness” — David Whyte Forgiveness Copy Share Image
But what would that be like feeling the tide rise out of the numbness inside — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“after all, the identity of the one who must forgive is actually founded on the very fact of having been wounded.” — David Whyte Copy Share Image
A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
