When it comes to poetry, few writers are as revered as Emily Dickinson. Her unique style and insightful observations have inspired people for generations.
Emily Dickinson is known for her use of slant rhyme, or the practice of using words that sound similar but don’t quite match up. She often combined two words together in this way to create a unique effect. Her poems are also known for their structure and meter, which she used to add emphasis or give an emotional resonance.
Dickinson’s works have been praised for their insight into the human condition. Her poems often explore themes of love, loss, and mortality, giving readers a glimpse into the inner workings of her mind. Dickinson’s work has been said to be both timeless and universal in its scope. She is remembered for her incredible way with words, which brought beauty and truth to life on paper.
In this blog post, we will take a look at 137 of her most inspiring quotes. Whether you are a writer yourself or just appreciate great poetry, you will find something to love in these quotes from Emily Dickinson!
Emily Dickinson Quotes
- “Love is Immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I dwell in possibility…” – Emily Dickinson
- “I’m nobody, who are you?” – Emily Dickinson
- “I wish you a kinder sea.” – Emily Dickinson
- “My friends are my estate.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Fortune befriends the bold.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Beauty is not caused. It is.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Forever is composed of nows.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Where thou art, that is home.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Bring me the sunset in a cup.” – Emily Dickinson
- “My business is circumference.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Mirth is the Mail of Anguish –” – Emily Dickinson
- “Hope is the thing with feathers” – Emily Dickinson
- “The brain is wider than the sky.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Oh the Earth was made for lovers” – Emily Dickinson
- “Where Thou art – that – is Home.” – Emily Dickinson
- “your brain is wider than the sky” – Emily Dickinson
- “A wounded deer leaps the highest.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Pardon My Sanity In A World Insane” – Emily Dickinson
- “The soul should always stand ajar.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Till I loved I never liked enough.” – Emily Dickinson
- “It is finished, is never said of us ” – Emily Dickinson
- “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies” – Emily Dickinson
- “Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Art is a house that tries to be haunted.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The only secret people keep is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
- “If your Nerve, deny you Go above your Nerve” – Emily Dickinson
- “Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—Too?” – Emily Dickinson
- “Memory is a strange Bell—Jubilee, and Knell.” – Emily Dickinson
- “It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate. ” – Emily Dickinson
- “Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I like a look of agony, because I know it’s true” – Emily Dickinson
- “Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Para viajar lejos, no hay mejor nave que un libro.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Success is counted sweetest by those ne’er succeed.” – Emily Dickinson
- “To travel far, there is no better ship than a book.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Our summer made her light escape into the beautiful.” – Emily Dickinson
- “This is my letter to the world That never wrote to me” – Emily Dickinson
- “I would have drowned twice to save you sinking, dear.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The truth I do not dare to know I muffle with a jest.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I work to drive the awe away, yet awe impels the work.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind-Thy windy will to bear!” – Emily Dickinson
- “Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.” – Emily Dickinson
- “That it will never come again is what makes life sweet.” – Emily Dickinson
- “There is no frigate like a book, to take us lands away.” – Emily Dickinson
- “We grow accustomed to the dark when light is put away” – Emily Dickinson
- “Much Madness is Divinest Sense, to a Discerning Eye….” – Emily Dickinson
- “The Heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care” – Emily Dickinson
- “Existence has overpowered Books. Today I slew a Mushroom.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Who counts the wampum of the night to see that none is due?” – Emily Dickinson
- “Because I could not stop for death He kindly stopped for me” – Emily Dickinson
- “I believe in possibility.” – Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson Everyman’s Poetry
- “Narcotics cannot still the Tooth That nibbles at the soul –” – Emily Dickinson
- “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” – Emily Dickinson
- “A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Todo lo que sabemos del amor es que el amor es todo lo que hay.” – Emily Dickinson
- “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” – Emily Dickinson
- “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.” – Emily Dickinson
- “How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!” – Emily Dickinson
- “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul–BOOKS.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Earth is crammed with Heaven.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The Loneliness One dare not sound— … The Horror not to be surveyed—” – Emily Dickinson
- “I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The Brain — is wider than the Sky — ,” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.” – Emily Dickinson
- “La esperanza es esa cosa con plumas que se posa en el alma y canta sin parar.” – Emily Dickinson
- “We journey to the day, And tell each other how we sang To keep the dark away.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Could you tell me how to grow–or is it unconveyed–like Melody–or Witchcraft?” – Emily Dickinson
- “Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.” – Emily Dickinson
- “After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I’m a Nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? There’s a pair of us- don’t tell!” – Emily Dickinson
- “But it is growing damp and I must go in. Memory’s fog is rising.” – Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters
- “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” – Emily Dickinson
- “You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself.” – Emily Dickinson
- “We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” – Emily Dickinson
- “They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The only Commandment I ever obeyed — ‘Consider the Lilies.” – Emily Dickinson, The Letters Of Emily Dickinson
- “I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.” – Emily Dickinson
- “These are the days when birds come back, a very few, a Bird or two, to take a backward look.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.” – Emily Dickinson
- “A Word that Breathes Distinctly Has not the Power to Die” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “Nature is what we know / Yet have not art to say / So impotent our wisdom is / To her simplicity.” – Emily Dickinson
- “That it will never come again Is what makes life so sweet.” – Emily Dickinson, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
- “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.” – 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
- “You think my gait ‘spasmodic’ – I am in danger – Sir – You think me ‘uncontrolled’ – I have no Tribunal.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Heart, we will forget him, You and I, tonight! You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.” – Emily Dickinson
- “You cannot fold a flood and put it in a drawer, because the winds would find it out and tell your cedar floor.” – 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
- “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.” – 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
- “We were never intimate mother and children while she was our mother – but… when she became our child, the affection came.” – 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
- “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
- “Some keep the Sabbath going to church, I keep it staying at home, with a bobolink for a chorister, and an orchard for a dome. ” – 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
- “Poiché non potevo fermarmi per la Morte, lei gentilmente si fermò per me. La carrozza non portava che noi due, e l’immortalità.” – Emily Dickinson
- “I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.” – Emily Dickinson
- “The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him is aristocracy.” – Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of 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
- “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 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
- “Who loves you most, and loves you best, and thinks of you when others rest? ‘Tis Emilie.” – Emily Dickinson, Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
- “He lived where dreams were sown. His presence is enchantment, You beg him not to go; Old volumes shake their vellum heads And tantalize, just so.” – Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson: Complete Poems
- “God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him! The charms of the heaven in the bush are superseded, I fear, by the heaven in the hand, occasionally.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Have you got a brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so?” – Emily Dickinson, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete
- “If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her; if she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase, and the approbation of my dog would forsake me then. My barefoot rank is better.” – Emily Dickinson
- “Susie, what shall I do – there is’nt room enough; not half enough, to hold what I was going to say. Wont you tell the man who makes sheets of paper, that I hav’nt the slightest respect for him!” – Emily Dickinson
- “Sisters are brittle things. God was penurious with me, which makes me shrewd with Him. One is a dainty sum! One bird, one cage, one flight; one song in those far woods, as yet suspected by faith only!” – Emily Dickinson
- “Oh my darling one, how long you wander from me, how weary I grow of waiting and looking, and calling for you; sometimes I shut my eyes, and shut my heart towards you, and try hard to forget you because you grieve me so, but you’ll never go away, oh you never will.” – Emily Dickinson, Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
Wrapping Up
Emily Dickinson’s poetry and prose reflects her insight into the beauty of nature, the power of language, and a longing for love. Her words can be both comforting and inspiring as we continue to explore life’s mysteries. Whether you prefer her playful verses or profound meditation on life, Emily Dickinson offers something special to each reader. We hope that these quotes from Emily Dickinson can bring a little of her spark and insight into your life.
