Emily Dickinson > Quotes

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

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

“open me carefully”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

“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 labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.”
― Emily Dickinson

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

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

“I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf ”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson, Dickinson: Poems

“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 but moor— Tonight—
In thee!”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems

“The Soul selects her own Society.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“To shut your eyes is to travel.”
― Emily Dickenson

“your brain is wider than the sky”
― Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson

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

“I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still.”
― Emily Dickinson, Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson

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

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

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

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

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

“I wish you a kinder sea.”
― Emily Dickinson

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

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

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

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

“She dealt her pretty words like Blades --
How glittering they shone --
And every One unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone --

She never deemed -- she hurt --
That -- is not Steel's Affair --
A vulgar grimace in the Flesh --
How ill the Creatures bear --

To Ache is human -- not polite --
The Film upon the eye
Mortality's old Custom --
Just locking up -- to Die.”
― Emily Dickenson

“That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. Dwell in possibility. Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”
― Emily Dickenson

“I hope your rambles have been sweet, and your reveries spacious”
― Emily Dickinson

“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.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete 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 —”
― Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems