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

—  Emily Dickinson

Last update Oct. 7, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS." by Emily Dickinson?
Emily Dickinson photo
Emily Dickinson187
American poet 1830–1886

Related quotes

“I carry thoughts of you like my own personal constellation. How far away you are, my dearest friend, but no farther than those fixed stars in my soul.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Abigail Adams photo

“Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Last words in a letter to John Adams, as quoted in Famous Last Words (1961) by Barnaby Conrad

Robin McKinley photo

“When they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship.”

Robin McKinley book Spindle's End

Source: Spindle's End

Richard Bach photo

“What a delighted fascination it is, to stand aside and watch our dearest friend perform on stage without us.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

Oliver Goldsmith photo

“The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

Khalil Gibran photo

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

Edwin Hubbell Chapin, as quoted in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert
Misattributed

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Courtship of Miles Standish

Source: The Courtship of Miles Standish

Walter Scott photo

“Time will rust the sharpest sword,
Time will consume the strongest cord”

Walter Scott Harold the Dauntless

Harold the Dauntless (1817), Canto I, st. 4.
Context: Time will rust the sharpest sword,
Time will consume the strongest cord;
That which molders hemp and steel,
Mortal arm and nerve must feel.

Clarence Darrow photo

“Many Christians base the belief of a soul and God upon the Bible. Strictly speaking, there is no such book. To make the Bible, sixty-six books are bound into one volume. These books are written by many people at different times, and no one knows the time or the identity of any author. Some of the books were written by several authors at various times. These books contain all sorts of contradictory concepts of life and morals and the origin of things. Between the first and the last nearly a thousand years intervened, a longer time than has passed since the discovery of America by Columbus.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)

Leo Tolstoy photo

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Bk. X, ch. 16
Source: War and Peace (1865–1867; 1869)

Related topics