Emily Dickinson > Quotes

“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?”
― Emily Dickinson

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating – beating – till I thought
My Mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down –
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing – then –”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“Judge tenderly of me.”
― Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems

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

“Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

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, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“Those who have not found the heaven below,
will fail of it above.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

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

“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 Sun
Were shining in your Hand.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of 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

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

“To be alive──is Power.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“Anger as soon as fed is dead-
'Tis starving makes it fat. ”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems

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

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

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

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

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

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.”
― Emily Dickinson

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

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

“Forever – is composed of Nows – (690)


Forever – is composed of Nows –
‘Tis not a different time –
Except for Infiniteness –
And Latitude of Home –

From this – experienced Here –
Remove the Dates – to These –
Let Months dissolve in further Months –
And Years – exhale in Years –

Without Debate – or Pause –
Or Celebrated Days –
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Dominies –”
― Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson

“One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

Far safer, of a midnight meeting
External ghost,
Than an interior confronting
That whiter host.

Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.

Ourself, behind ourself concealed,
Should startle most;
Assassin, hid in our apartment,
Be horror's least.

The prudent carries a revolver,
He bolts the door,
O'erlooking a superior spectre
More near.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of 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: Emily Dickinson's Poems

“My friends are my estate.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.”
― Emily Dickinson

“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!”
― Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson