David Whyte

“The frail, vulnerable sounds of which we are capable seem to be essential to a later ability to roar like a lion without scaring everyone to death.”

“The ultimate lesson is that there is no immunity, no matter our age or the size of our retirement account, from going through constant cycles of integration and disintegration in which we are humbled and hopefully set to rights with the world again.”

“It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with: it is the mother of the thing you fear.”

“Honesty lies in understanding our close and necessary relationship with not wanting to hear the truth.”

“Lion sounds that have not grown from the mouse may exude naked power... but cannot convey any wisdom or understanding... The initial steps on the path to courageous speech then are the first tentative steps into the parts of us that cannot speak.”

“We speak continually of saving time, but time in its richness is most often lost to us when we are busy without relief.”

“One of the great difficulties as you rise up through an organisation is that your prior competencies are exploded and broken apart by the territory you've been promoted into: the field of human identity.”

“Stop trying to change reality by attempting to eliminate complexity.”

“It is the province of poetry to be more realistic and present than the artificial narratives of an outer discourse, and not afraid of the truthful difficulty of the average human life.”

“There are millions of people living Thoreau's life of quiet desperation, and they do not have the language to escape from that desperation.”

“It is difficult to be creative and enthusiastic about anything for which we do not feel affection.”

“The thing about great poetry is we have no defenses against it.”

“To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.”

“The greatest luxury of having money should be not having to worry about it.”

“Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why you never see good poetry in advertising.”