Emily Dickinson Quotes

page 2

“Tis not that dieing hurts us so- tis living- hurts us more.”

“He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!”

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.”

“Anger as soon as fed is dead-
'Tis starving makes it fat.”

“The possible's slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.”

“There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.”

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.”

“My friends are my "estate."”

“To be alive──is Power.”

“They say that God is everywhere and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse.”

“The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.”

“I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too?”

“I have been bent and broken, but -I hope- into a better shape.”

“People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”

“in this short life
that only lasts ah hour
how much-how little-is
within our power.”

“I can wade Grief --
Whole Pools of it --
I'm used to that --
But the least push of Joy
Breaks up my feet --
And I tip -- drunken --
Let no Pebble -- smile --
'Twas the New Liquor --
That was all!”

“I'll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!”

“"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see —
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.”

“My best Acquaintances are those
With Whom I spoke no Word”

“To see her is a picture-
To hear her is a tune-
To know her an Intemperance
As innocent as June-
To know her not-Affliction-
To own her for a Friend
A warmth as near as if the the Sun
Were shining in your Hand.”

“Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself.”

“I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—
As if my Brain had split—
I tried to match it—Seam by Seam—
But could not make it fit.”

“Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!”

“your brain is wider than the sky”

“Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.”

“Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.”

“My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.”

“To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.”

“Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems.”

“The Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind.”

“To shut your eyes is to travel.”

“They say that 'home is where the heart is.' I think it is where the house is, and the adjacent buildings.”

“A power of Butterfly must be -
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty concedes
And easy Sweeps of Sky”

“I held a jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep.
The day was warm, and winds were prosy;
I said: "'T will keep."

I woke and chid my honest fingers,—
The gem was gone;
And now an amethyst remembrance
Is all I own.”

“The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more”

“How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”

“Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.”

“Opinion is a fitting thing but truth outlasts the sun - if then we cannot own them both, possess the oldest one.”

“There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away…”

“A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.”

“I lost a world the other day. Has anybody found? You'll know it by the rows of stars around it's forehead bound. A rich man might not notice it; yet to my frugal eye of more esteem than ducats. Oh! Find it, sir, for me!”

“The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on.”

“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. Espousing the former is not defending the latter.”

“One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted —
One need not be a House —
The Brain has Corridors — surpassing
Material Place”

“Inebriate of Air — am I —
And Debauchee of Dew —
Reeling — thro endless summer days —
From Inns of Molten Blue”

“You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself.”

“Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.”

“If your Nerve, deny you
Go above your Nerve”

“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”