Quote

I heard a bird congratulating itself all day for being a jay. Nobody cared. But it was glad all over again, and said so, again.

William Stafford

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William Stafford
Age: 79 †
Born: 1914
Born: January 17
Died: 1993
Died: August 28
Author
Poet
Writer
Hutchinson
Kansas
Congratulating
Cared
Glad
Bird
Nobody
Heard

More quotes by William Stafford

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It's love,' they say. You touch the right one and a whole half of the universe wakes up, a new half.
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If you can say it, it begins to exist.
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The ocean and I have many pebbles To find and wash off and roll into shape.
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My question is when did other people give up the idea of being a poet? You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?
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Once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold, found some limit beyond the waterfall, a season changes and we come back changed but safe, quiet, grateful.
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An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn't hear it--I breathed it into my ears.
William Stafford
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A student comes to me with a piece of writing, holds it out, says, 'Is this good?' A whole sequence of emergencies goes off in my mind. That's not a question to ask anyone but yourself.
William Stafford
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And the things you know before you hear them these are you and the reason you are in the world.
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A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.
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Even the upper end of the river believes in the ocean.
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When a goat likes a book, the whole book is gone, and the meaning has to go find an author again.
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You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.
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The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
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So, the world happens twice-- once what we see it as second it legends itself deep, the way it is.
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Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.
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There are so many things admirable people do not understand.
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You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about
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You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.
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They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, Who are you really, wanderer?-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: Maybe I'm a king.
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Anyone who breathes is in the rhythm business.
William Stafford