Emily Dickinson Quotes

One need not be a chamber to be haunted,One need not be a house;The brain has corridors surpassingMaterial place.Far safer, of a midnight meetingExternal ghost,Than an interior confrontingThat whiter host.Far safer through an Abbey gallop,The stones achase,Than, moonless, one's own self encounterIn 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 spectreMore near.

~ Emily Dickinson

Consciousness is the only home of which we know.

~ Emily Dickinson

The past is not a package one can lay away.

~ Emily Dickinson

I measure every Grief I meetWith narrow, probing, eyes –I wonder if It weighs like Mine –Or has an Easier size.I wonder if They bore it long –Or did it just begin –I could not tell the Date of Mine –It feels so old a pain –I wonder if it hurts to live –And if They have to try –And whether – could They choose between –It would not be – to die –I note that Some – gone patient long –At length, renew their smile –An imitation of a LightThat has so little Oil –I wonder if when Years have piled –Some Thousands – on the Harm –That hurt them early – such a lapseCould give them any Balm.

~ Emily Dickinson

I sing to use the waiting, My bonnet but to tie, And shut the door unto my house; No more to do have I, Till, his best step approaching, We journey to the day, And tell each other how we sang To keep the dark away.

~ Emily Dickinson

In snow thou comestThou shalt go with resuming groundThe sweet derision of thx crowAnd Glee's advancing sound

~ Emily Dickinson

In lands I never saw, they say, Immortal Alps look down,Whose bonnets touch the firmament,Whose sandals touch the town, ―Meek at whose everlasting feetA myriad daisies play.Which, sir, are you, and which am I.Upon an August day?

~ 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 smileUpon 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

Anger as soon as fed is dead- 'Tis starving makes it fat.

~ Emily Dickinson

Truth is such a rare thing it is delightful to tell it

~ Emily Dickinson

I never spoke — unless addressed —And then, 'twas brief and low —I could not bear to live — aloud —The Racket shamed me so —And if it had not been so far —And any one I knewWere going — I had often thoughtHow noteless — I could die —

~ Emily Dickinson

I did not reach thee, But my feet slip nearer every day; Three Rivers and a Hill to cross, One Desert and a Sea— I shall not count the journey one When I am telling thee. Two deserts—but the year is cold So that will help the sand— One desert crossed, the second one Will feel as cool as land. Sahara is too little price To pay for thy Right hand! The sea comes last. Step merry, feet! So short have we to go To play together we are prone, But we must labor now, The last shall be the lightest load That we have had to draw. The Sun goes crooked—that is night— Before he makes the bend We must have passed the middle sea, Almost we wish the end Were further off—too great it seems So near the Whole to stand. We step like plush, we stand like snow— The waters murmur now, Three rivers and the hill are passed, Two deserts and the sea! Now Death usurps my premium And gets the look at Thee.

~ Emily Dickinson

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

~ Emily Dickinson

Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.

~ Emily Dickinson

Not knowing when the dawn will comeI open every door.

~ Emily Dickinson

The Babies we were are buried, and their shadows are plodding on.

~ Emily Dickinson

Her breast is fit for pearls,But I was not a Diver - Her brow is fit for thronesBut I have not a crest,Her heart is fit for home-I- a Sparrow- build thereSweet of twigs and twineMy perennial nest.

~ Emily Dickinson

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

~ Emily Dickinson

The sun just touched the morning; The morning, happy thing, Supposed that he had come to dwell, And life would be all spring.

~ Emily Dickinson

To be alive──is Power.

~ Emily Dickinson

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

~ Emily Dickinson

There's nothing wicked in Shakespeare, and if there is I don't want to know it.

~ Emily Dickinson

Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.

~ Emily Dickinson

If you were coming in the Fall, I'd brush the Summer by With half a smile and half a spurn, As Housewives do a Fly. If I could see you in a year, I'd wind the months in balls —And put them each in separate Drawers, For fear the numbers fuse —If only Centuries, delayed, I'd count them on my Hand, Subtracting, till my fingers dropped Into Van Diemen's land. If certain, when this life was out, That yours and mine should be, I ’d toss it yonder like a rind, And taste eternity. But, now, uncertain of the length Of this, that is between, It goads me, like the Goblin Bee, That will not state — its sting.

~ Emily Dickinson

Dying is a wild night and a new road.

~ Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me - The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.

~ Emily Dickinson

Finite to fail but infinite to venture.

~ Emily Dickinson

Fame is a bee It has a song - It has a sting - Ah too it has a wing.

~ 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

The hearts that never lean must fall.

~ Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain.

~ Emily Dickinson

Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.

~ Emily Dickinson

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.

~ Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant.

~ Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.

~ Emily Dickinson

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.

~ Emily Dickinson

I dwell in possibility.

~ Emily Dickinson

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

~ Emily Dickinson

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

~ 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