"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all."
— Emily Dickinson

"That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."
— Emily Dickinson

"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain."
— Emily Dickinson

"Morning without you is a dwindled dawn."
— Emily Dickinson

"If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry."
— Emily Dickinson

"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."
— Emily Dickinson

"Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell."
— Emily Dickinson

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."
— Emily Dickinson

"I dwell in possibility…"
— Emily Dickinson

"Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted."
— Emily Dickinson (The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson)

"Forever is composed of nows."
— Emily Dickinson

"Pardon My Sanity In A World Insane"
— Emily Dickinson

"There is no Frigate like a book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry..."
— Emily Dickinson

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one's name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!"
— Emily Dickinson

"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."
— Emily Dickinson

"This is my letter to the world
That never wrote to me"
— Emily Dickinson

"A word is dead when it's been said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day."
— Emily Dickinson

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can 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?"
— Emily Dickinson

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

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility."
— Emily Dickinson

"Beauty is not caused. It is."
— Emily Dickinson

"A Book

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!"
— Emily Dickinson

"I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense."
— Emily Dickinson

"The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul--BOOKS."
— Emily Dickinson

"How happy is the little stone
That rambles in the road alone,
And doesn't care about careers,
And exigencies never fears;
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on;
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity."
— Emily Dickinson

"Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it."
— Emily Dickinson

"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."
— Emily Dickinson

"PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there's a word to lift your hat to...to find that phosphorescence, that light within, that's the genius behind poetry."
— Emily Dickinson

"There is no frigate like a good book to take us to lands away."
— Emily Dickinson

"Bring me the sunset in a cup."
— Emily Dickinson

"We outgrow love like other things and put it in a drawer, till it an antique fashion shows like costumes grandsires wore."
— Emily Dickinson

"Parting is all we know of Heaven,
and all we need of Hell."
— Emily Dickinson

"Saying nothing sometimes says the most."
— Emily Dickinson

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."
— Emily Dickinson

"We turn not older with years but newer every day."
— Emily Dickinson

"That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality"
— Emily Dickinson

"Much Madness is divinest Sense --
To a discerning Eye --
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness --
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail --
Assent -- and you are sane --
Demur -- you're straightway dangerous --
And handled with a Chain --"
— Emily Dickinson

"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!"
— Emily Dickinson (Final Harvest: Poems)

"I felt it shelter to speak to you."
— Emily Dickinson

"One need not be a chamber to be haunted."
— Emily Dickinson (The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson)

"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, the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names."
— Emily Dickinson

"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."
— Emily Dickinson (Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson)

"Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it."
— Emily Dickinson

"I tasted life."
— Emily Dickinson

"Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them."
— Emily Dickinson

"A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King."
— Emily Dickinson

"My friends are my estate."
— Emily Dickinson

"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!"
— Emily Dickinson

"Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---"
— Emily Dickinson

"The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside."
— Emily Dickinson

"Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems."
— Emily Dickinson