There's a fierce practicality and empiricism which the whole imaginative, lyrical aspect of poetry comes from. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Whether we stay or whether we go - to be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
What if the world is holding its breath - waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill? — David Whyte Breath Copy Share Image
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love. — David Whyte Choices Copy Share Image
The severest test of work today, is not of our strategies, but of our imaginations and identities. — David Whyte Identity Copy Share Image
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. — David Whyte Aloneness Copy Share Image
Art is the act of triggering deep memories, of what it means to be fully human. — David Whyte Art 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
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
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 Copy Share Image
“It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with, it is the mother of the thing you fear. The… — David Whyte Fear Copy Share Image
Being a good parent will necessarily break our hearts as we watch a child grow and eventually choose their own way, even… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force… — David Whyte Art 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 Copy Share Image
What we strive for in perfection is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire what disturbs and then nourishes… — David Whyte Angel Copy Share Image
I love the best of all the traditions. My discipline is the take-no-prisoners language of good poetry, but a language that actually… — David Whyte Discipline Copy Share Image
You'll always love the person, if you're sensible. But you get a lot of people, especially in divorces and separations, doing a… — David Whyte Damage 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
As human beings we have this immediate gateway - you’ve just to articulate exactly the way that you’re exiled, exactly the way… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“Self-knowledge is not clarity or transparency or knowing how everything works, self-knowledge is a fiercely attentive form of humility and thankfulness, a… — David Whyte Attention Copy Share Image
Those who will not slip beneath the still surface on the well of grief turning downward through it s black water to… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Everyone casts a shadow. Everyone has a relationship with the fearful unknown. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence. — David Whyte Care Copy Share Image
I believe that human beings are desperate, always, to belong to something larger than themselves. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your… — David Whyte 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
There is a lovely root to the word humiliation - from the latin word humus, meaning soil or ground. When we are… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“...wanting soul life without the dark, warming intelligence of personal doubt is like expecting an egg without the brooding heat of the… — David Whyte Life Copy Share Image
The truth about our own modest contribution might immobilize us: much easier then, to tell ourselves a story about how much we… — David Whyte Contribution Copy Share Image
Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The marvelous thing about a good question is that it shapes our identity as much by the asking as it does by… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The frail, vulnerable sounds of which we are capable seem to be essential to a later ability to roar like a lion… — David Whyte Ability Copy Share Image
To give generously but appropriately and then, most difficult of all, and as the full apotheosis of the art, with feeling, in… — David Whyte Apotheosis Copy Share Image
Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why… — David Whyte Advertising Copy Share Image
Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is… — David Whyte 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 Copy Share Image
Gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
If I don't have time for the writing, it's because I'm not making that time. It's really just a question of whether… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
