Emily Dickinson Quotes

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”

“Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.”

“Forever is composed of nows.”

“Bring me the sunset in a cup.”

“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”

“Love — thou art Veiled —
A few — behold thee —
Smile — and alter — and prattle — and die —
Bliss — were an Oddity — without thee —
Nicknamed by God —
Eternity”

“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”

“That love is all there is, Is all we know of love.”

“I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.”

“The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity”

“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

“I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf”

“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.”

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”

“That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality”

“A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day.”

“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS.”

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”

“I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They ’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!”

“Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”

“Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted.”

“Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.”

“The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care”

“A soft Sea washed around the House
A Sea of Summer Air
And rose and fell the magic Planks
That sailed without a care —
For Captain was the Butterfly
For Helmsman was the Bee
And an entire universe
For the delighted crew.”

“Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door.”

“A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.”

“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

“Parting is all we know of Heaven,
and all we need of Hell.”

“Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!

Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!”

“The Heart is the Capital of the Mind—
The Mind is a single State—
The Heart and the Mind together make
A single Continent—

One—is the Population—
Numerous enough—
This ecstatic Nation
Seek—it is Yourself.”

“Beauty is not caused. It is.”

“Pardon My Sanity In A World Insane”

“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.”

“Dreams — are well — but Waking's better,
If One wake at Morn —
If One wake at Midnight — better —
Dreaming — of the Dawn”

“I died for Beauty — but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb,
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room —”

“He questioned softly "Why I failed"?
"For Beauty," I replied.
"And I — for Truth, — Themself are One —
We Brethren, are", He said —”

“Heart, we will forget him,

You and I, tonight!

You must forget the warmth he gave,

I will forget the light.”

“Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.”

“There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.”

“Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.”

“PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there's a word to lift your hat to… to find that phosphorescence, that light within, that's the genius behind poetry.”

“I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.”

“We turn not older with years but newer every day.”

“One need not be a chamber to be haunted.”

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”

“I felt it shelter to speak to you.”

“A great hope fell
You heard no noise
The ruin was within.”

“Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.”

“We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.”

“They might not need me; but they might.
I'll let my head be just in sight;
A smile as small as mine might be
Precisely their necessity.”

“But a Book is only the Heart's Portrait- every Page a Pulse.”

“An ear can break a human heart
As quickly as a spear,
We wish the ear had not a heart
So dangerously near.”

“We outgrow love, like other things
And put it in the Drawer —
Till it an Antique fashion shows —
Like Costumes Grandsires wore.”

“Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.”

“Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured.”

“A wounded dear leaps the highest”

“If you were coming in the fall,
I'd brush the summer by,
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.

If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls,
And put them each in separate drawers,
Until their time befalls.”

“How do most people live without any thought? There are many people in the world,--you must have noticed them in the street,--how do they live? How do they get strength to put on their clothes in the morning?”

“I must go in, the fog is rising.”

“Judge tenderly of me.”

“I tasted life.”

“Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.”

“She died--this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”

“Who has not found the Heaven — below —
Will fail of it above”

“My love for those I love -- not many -- not very many, but don't I love them so?”