Emily Dickinson Quotes & Sayings

To shut your eyes is to travel. — Emily Dickinson

Some Arrows slay but whom they strike - But this slew all but him - Who so appareled his Escape - Too trackless for a Tomb — Emily Dickinson

There is a Zone whose even Years
No Solstice interrupt -
Whose Sun constructs perpetual Noon
Whose perfect Seasons wait -
Whose Summer set in Summer, till
The Centuries of June
And Centuries of August cease
And Consciousness - is Noon. — Emily Dickinson

Two Seasons, it is said, exist-
The Summer of the Just,
And this of Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost-
May not our Second with its First
So infinite compare
That We but recollect the one
The other to prefer? — Emily Dickinson

your brain is wider than the sky — Emily Dickinson

But the world is sleeping in ignorance and error, sir, and we must be crowing cocks, and singing larks, and a rising sun to awake her; or else we'll pull society up to the roots, and plant it in a different place. We'll build Alms-houses, and transcendental State prisons, and scaffolds -- we will blow out the sun, and the moon, and encourage invention. Alpha shall kiss Omega--we will ride up the hill of glory -- Hallelujah, all hail! — Emily Dickinson

When Jesus tells us about his Father, we distrust him. When he shows us his Home, we turn away, but when he confides to us that he is 'acquainted with Grief', we listen, for that also is an Acquaintance of our own. — Emily Dickinson

I had no monarch in my life, and cannot rule myself; and when I try to organize, my little force explodes and leaves me bare and charred. — Emily Dickinson

The Spirit lurks within the Flesh Like Tides within the Sea That make the Water live, estranged What would the Either be? — Emily Dickinson

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

Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day - — Emily Dickinson

Who loves you most, and loves you best, and thinks of you when others rest? 'Tis Emilie. — Emily Dickinson

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies! — Emily Dickinson

You'll find it-when you try to die- The Easier to let go- For recollecting such as went- You could not spare-you know. — Emily Dickinson

Dwell in possibility — 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

Angels in the early morning may be seen the dews among. Stooping, plucking, smiling, flying. Do the buds to them belong? — Emily Dickinson

The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care — Emily Dickinson

The hearts that never lean must fall. — Emily Dickinson

I took one Draught of Life - I'll tell you what I paid - Precisely an existence - The market price, they said. — Emily Dickinson

Hope ... never stops at all. — Emily Dickinson

Pardon My Sanity In A World Insane — Emily Dickinson

If I wasn't a perfect woman, I'd bust you in the nose. — Emily Dickinson

A great hope fell You heard no noise The ruin was within. — Emily Dickinson

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie
True Poems flee - — Emily Dickinson

No ladder needs the bird but skies To situate its wings, Nor any leaders grim baton Arraigns it as it sings. — Emily Dickinson

I read my sentence - steadily ... — Emily Dickinson

Beauty crowds me till I die." Emily Dickinson — Emily Dickinson

It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down;
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues, for noon.

It was not frost, for on my flesh
I felt siroccos crawl,
Nor fire, for just my marble feet
Could keep a chancel cool.

And yet it tasted like them all;
The figures I have seen
Set orderly, for burial,
Reminded me of mine,

As if my life were shaven
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key;
And I was like midnight, some,

When everything that ticked has stopped,
And space stares, all around,
Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,
Repeal the beating ground.

But most like chaos,--stopless, cool,
Without a chance or spar,--
Or even a report of land
To justify despair. — Emily Dickinson

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes. — Emily Dickinson

Experiment escorts us last-
His pungent company
will not allow an axiom
An opportunity — Emily Dickinson

Beauty crowds me till I die,
Beauty, mercy have on me!
But if I expire today,
Let it be in sight of thee — Emily Dickinson

Pain - has an Element of Blank
It cannot recollect
When it begun - or if there were
a time when it was not -
It has no Future - but itself -
Its Infinite contain
Its Past - enlightened to perceive
New Periods - of Pain. — Emily Dickinson

Love can do all but raise the Dead I doubt if even that From such a giant were withheld Were flesh equivalent But love is tired and must sleep, And hungry and must graze And so abets the shining Fleet Till it is out of gaze. — Emily Dickinson

My best Acquaintances are those With Whom I spoke no Word — Emily Dickinson

Till the first friend dies, we think our ecstasy impersonal, but then discover that he was the cup from which we drank it, itself as yet unknown. — 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. — Emily Dickinson

Estranged from Beauty - none can be -
For Beauty is Infinity -
And power to be finite ceased
Before Identity was leased. — 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

Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God's residence is next to min,
His furniture is love. — Emily Dickinson

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind. — Emily Dickinson

VI. 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

I have an appetite for silence. — Emily Dickinson

My Country is Truth. — Emily Dickinson

Open your life wide, and take me in forever. I will never be tired-I will never be noisy when you want to be still ... nobody else will see me, but you-but that is enough-I shall not want any more. — Emily Dickinson

I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too? — Emily Dickinson

We grow accustomed to the dark when light is put away
— Emily Dickinson

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

A Bayonet's contrition is nothing to the dead. — Emily Dickinson

An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of a vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere ... — Emily Dickinson

Drunkards of summer are quite as frequent as Drunkards of wine. — Emily Dickinson

FAREWELL. Tie the strings to my life, my Lord, Then I am ready to go! Just a look at the horses - Rapid! That will do! Put me in on the firmest side, So I shall never fall; For we must ride to the Judgment, And it's partly down hill. But never I mind the bridges, And never I mind the sea; Held fast in everlasting race By my own choice and thee. Good-by to the life I used to live, And the world I used to know; And kiss the hills for me, just once; Now I am ready to go! — Emily Dickinson

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy. — Emily Dickinson

We must be careful what we say. No bird resumes its egg. — Emily Dickinson

Then I will not repine
Knowing that bird of mine
Though flown shall in a distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return. — Emily Dickinson

To lose ones faith-surpass The loss of an Estate- Because Estates can be Replenished- faith cannot-. — Emily Dickinson

A dim capacity for wings demeans the dress I wear. — 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

Pain - expands the Time - / Ages coil within / The minute Circumference / Of a single Brain - / Pain contracts - the Time - / Occupied with Shot / Gamuts of Eternities / Are as they were not - — Emily Dickinson

After a hundred years
Nobody knows the place,
Agony, that enacted there,
Motionless as peace. — Emily Dickinson

Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath. — Emily Dickinson

All things do go a-courting,
In earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single
But thee in His world so fair. — Emily Dickinson

Nods from the Gilded pointers -
Nods from the Seconds slim -
Decades of Arrogance between
The Dial life -
And Him - — Emily Dickinson

THE MOON was but a chin of gold
A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
Upon the world below.
Her forehead is of amplest blond;
Her cheek like beryl stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
The likest I have known.
Her lips of amber never part;
But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
Were such her silver will!
And what a privilege to be
But the remotest star!
For certainly her way might pass
Beside your twinkling door.
Her bonnet is the firmament,
The universe her shoe,
The stars the trinkets at her belt,
Her dimities of blue. — Emily Dickinson

So proud she was to die
It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
To her desire seemed.
So satisfied to go
Where none of us should be,
Immediately, that anguish stooped
Almost to jealousy. — Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is Divinest Sense, to a Discerning Eye ... — Emily Dickinson

Life is the finest secret. So long as that remains, we must all whisper. — Emily Dickinson

Unto a broken heart No other one may go Without the high prerogative Itself hath suffered too. — Emily Dickinson

Speech is one symptom of affection; and silence one; the perfect communication is heard of none. — Emily Dickinson

How vain it seems to write, when one knows how to feel
how much more near and dear to sit beside you, talk with you, hear the tones of your voice ... Give me strength, Susie, write me of hope and love, and of hearts that endure ... — Emily Dickinson

They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,
Like petals from a rose,
When suddenly across the lune
A wind with fingers goes.
They perished in the seamless grass,
No eye could find the place;
But God on his repealless list
Can summon every face — Emily Dickinson

Banish Air from Air
Divide Light if you dare — Emily Dickinson

DARE you see a soul at the white heat?
Then crouch within the door.
Red is the fire's common tint;
But when the vivid ore
Has sated flame's conditions, 5
Its quivering substance plays
Without a color but the light
Of unanointed blaze.
Least village boasts its blacksmith,
Whose anvil's even din 10
Stands symbol for the finer forge
That soundless tugs within,
Refining these impatient ores
With hammer and with blaze,
Until the designated light 15
Repudiate the forge. — Emily Dickinson

A light exists in Spring
Not present in the year
at any other period
When March is scarcely here. — Emily Dickinson

I confess that I love him, I rejoice that I love him, I thank the maker of Heaven and Earth that gave him to me. The exultation floods me. — Emily Dickinson

Tell the truth, but tell it slant. — Emily Dickinson

Your absence insanes me so
I do not feel so peaceful, when you are gone from me. — Emily Dickinson

I HIDE myself within my flower
That wearing on your breast,
You, unsuspecting, wear me too
And angels know the rest.
I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness ... — Emily Dickinson

Adulation is
inexpensive
Except to him
who accepts
it.
It has cost
him
Himself. — Emily Dickinson

The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide,
Earth a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,
And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth in vain to sue. — Emily Dickinson

When I state myself, as the representative of the verse, it does not mean me, but a supposed person. — Emily Dickinson

But it is growing damp and I must go in. Memory's fog is rising. — Emily Dickinson

That Love is all there is
Is all we know of Love,
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove. — Emily Dickinson

In such a porcelain life, one likes to be sure that all is well lest one stumble upon one's hopes in a pile of broken crockery. — 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

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

open me carefully — Emily Dickinson

That short, potential stir That each can make but once, That bustle so illustrious Tis almost consequence, Is the eclat of death. — Emily Dickinson

Unto my Books-so good to turn-
Far ends of tired Days-
It half endears the Abstinence-
And Pain-is missed-in Praise-
As Flavors-cheer Retarded Guests
With Banquettings to be-
So Spices-stimulate the time
Till my small Library-
It may be Wilderness-without-
Far feet of failing Men-
But Holiday-excludes the night-
And it is Bells-within-
I thank these Kinsmen of the Shelf-
Their Countenances Kid
Enamor-in Prospective-
And satisfy-obtained- — Emily Dickinson

I like a look of agony, because I know it's true — Emily Dickinson

The Martyr Poets

The Martyr Poets - did not tell -
But wrought their Pang in syllable -
That when their mortal name be numb -
Their mortal fate - encourage Some -

The Martyr Painters - never spoke -
Bequeathing - rather - to their Work
That when their conscious fingers cease -
Some seek in Art - the Art of Peace - — 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

I have no life but this,
To lead it here;
Nor any death, but lest
Dispelled from there;
Nor tie to earths to come,
Nor action new,
Except through this extent,
The realm of you. — Emily Dickinson

You think my gait 'spasmodic' - I am in danger - Sir - You think me 'uncontrolled' - I have no Tribunal. — Emily Dickinson

I could not prove the Years had feet-/Yet confident they run. — Emily Dickinson

What will the solemn Hemlock- What will the Oak tree say? — Emily Dickinson

I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could finish enmity. — Emily Dickinson

In this short life
that only lasts ah hour
how much-how little-is
within our power. — Emily Dickinson

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