I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you. If you… — David Whyte Eye Copy Share Image
By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by… — David Whyte Definitions 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
In England especially, poetry's woven into the background fabric of society. And in Ireland, it's in the foreground. The place of the… — David Whyte Backgrounds Copy Share Image
It is the province of poetry to be more realistic and present than the artificial narratives of an outer discourse, and not… — David Whyte Artificial 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 Arrogant Copy Share Image
“One of the most beautifully disturbing questions we can ask, is whether a given story we tell about our lives is actually… — David Whyte Every day Copy Share Image
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. Pay attention to everything in the world as if it's… — David Whyte Alive Copy Share Image
Our work is to make ourselves visible in the world. This is the soul's individual journey, and the soul would much rather… — David Whyte Failing Copy Share Image
When I recite poems onstage, I put myself into the very personal struggle and it grants tremendous perspective. At the same time… — David Whyte Grants 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
The tragedy with velocity as the answer to complexity is that, after awhile, you cannot see or comprehend anything that is not… — David Whyte Answers Copy Share Image
The great poems are not about experience, but are the experience itself, felt in the body. — David Whyte Body Copy Share Image
I believe that human beings are desperate, always, to belong to something larger than themselves. — David Whyte Believe Copy Share Image
When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find… — David Whyte Beyond love Copy Share Image
“the lost sense that we play out our lives as part of a greater story” — David Whyte Life Copy Share Image
For the personality, bankruptcy or failure may be a disaster. For the soul, it may be grist for its strangely joyful mill,… — David Whyte Bankruptcy 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 Calling 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 Doe Copy Share Image
“Realizing its inescapable nature, we can see heartbreak not as the end of the road or the cessation of hope but as… — David Whyte End of the road Copy Share Image
Poetry is the art of overhearing ourselves say things from which it is impossible to retreat. — David Whyte Art 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 Forgiveness Copy Share Image
To seek out beauty in our work is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consummation of work… — David Whyte Beauty Copy Share Image
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive… — David Whyte Alive Copy Share Image
Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you. — David Whyte Heaven Copy Share Image
