David Whyte is a poet and philosopher. This collection gathers his own words from poems, essays and a conversation. — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough.

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From Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

  1. On the elegy of grief and celebration: David Whyte: "And an elegy, a good elegy, looking at it from the poetic point of view, is always a conversation between grief and celebration:the grief of the loss of the person, and the celebration that you were here at all to share the planet with them." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  2. On courageous conversation and vulnerability: David Whyte: "So one of the dynamics you have to get over with is this idea that you can occupy a position of responsibility — that you can have a courageous conversation without being vulnerable." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  3. On what was said turning back: David Whyte: "You can turn your face away from what was said, but when you turn your face back, it will still be waiting for you." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  4. On heading toward a richer place: David Whyte: "You are heading towards your demise, but it’s leading towards this richer, deeper place that doesn’t get corroborated very much in our everyday, outer world." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  5. On a sincere path and a broken heart: David Whyte: "This is another delusion we have, that we can take a sincere path in life without having our heart broken." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  6. On parenting and heartbreak: David Whyte: "And you think about the path of parenting, there’s never been a mother or father since the beginning of time, who hasn’t had their heart broken by their children. [laughs] And nothing dramatic has to happen." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  7. On running from vulnerability: David Whyte: "To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature, the attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to become something we are not and most especially, to close off our understanding of the grief of others." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).

From Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity

  1. On giving ourselves away: David Whyte: "And part of what we find is we’re just supposed to give ourselves away, actually." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  2. On a gift taking different forms: David Whyte: "And you move from your 20s into your 30s, and you suddenly find another, larger form for it, or a different shape that makes a different connection." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  3. On a group of people doing what one cannot: David Whyte: "It’s from “corpus,” Latin, meaning “a body.” It’s a group of people trying to do something you cannot do if you try to do it by yourself. [laughs] That’s the only definition." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  4. On genius as how everything is met: David Whyte: "So I think it’s a very merciful thing to think of human beings in the same way; that is, your genius is just the way everything is met in you." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  5. On the unknown: David Whyte: "Half of what’s about to occur is unknown, both inside you and outside you." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  6. "The great tragedy of speed as an answer to the complexities and responsibilities of existence is that very soon we cannot recognize anything or anyone who is not traveling at the same velocity as we are." [7]
  7. "Speed is also warning, a throbbing, insistent indicator that some cliff edge or other is very near, a sure diagnostic sign that we are living someone else's life and doing someone else's work." [7]

From The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America

  1. On poetry without defenses: David Whyte: "I always say that poetry is language against which you have no defenses." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  2. On being visible: David Whyte: "One of the vulnerabilities of being visible is that when you’re visible, you can be seen, and when you can be seen, you can be touched, and when you can be touched, you can be hurt." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  3. "Soul has to do with the way a human being belongs to their world, their work, or their human community. Where there is little sense of belonging, there is little sense of soul." [10]
  4. "Human beings are always desperate to belong to something larger than themselves." [10]
  5. On the simplicity at the center of every organization: David Whyte: "That’s the simplest, core, radical simplicity at the center of every organization." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  6. On overstructured organizations: David Whyte: "And I don’t think we quite realize how overstructured our organizations were, just 25 years ago or 30 years ago." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).
  7. On inherited skepticism of organizations: David Whyte: "So my blood inheritance was around disbelief and around skepticism around any large, abstract organizations, whether they were government or private." — On Being: David Whyte — Seeking Language Large Enough (Whyte's turns).

From The House of Belonging (Poem and Book)

  1. "This is the bright home in which I live, this is where I ask my friends to come, this is where I want to love all the things it has taken me so long to learn to love." [11][12]
  2. "This is the temple of my adult aloneness and I belong to that aloneness as I belong to my life." [11][12]
  3. "There is no house like the house of belonging." [11][12]
  4. "Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you." [4][13]
  5. On learning one thing: David Whyte: "You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in." — On Being poetry: sweet-darkness (written and read by David Whyte).
  6. "When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you." [4]
  7. "Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own." [4]
  8. On not being beyond love: David Whyte: "There you can be sure you are not beyond love." — On Being poetry: sweet-darkness (written and read by David Whyte).
  9. On a horizon further than you can see: David Whyte: "The night will give you a horizon further than you can see." — On Being poetry: sweet-darkness (written and read by David Whyte).
  10. On giving up other worlds: David Whyte: "Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong." — On Being poetry: sweet-darkness (written and read by David Whyte).

From Everything is Waiting for You (Poem and Book)

  1. "Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone." [14]
  2. "To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings." [14]
  3. "Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity." [14][15]
  4. "Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation." [14]
  5. "All the birds and creatures of the world are unutterably themselves. Everything is waiting for you." [14]
  6. "The kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink." [14]
  7. "The tiny speaker in the phone is your dream-ladder to divinity." [14][16]
  8. "You must note the way the soap dish enables you, or the window latch grants you freedom." [14][16]

Key Learnings from David Whyte's Work