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Emily Dickinson Quotes

Writer

Emily Dickinson, one of America’s most revered poets, explored the inner world of emotion, nature, and existence with remarkable depth and subtlety. Her quotes reveal her keen observations, introspective wisdom, and unique perspective on life and mortality. Together, they offer timeless reflections that inspire contemplation, self-discovery, and an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the human experience.

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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.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
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Success is counted sweetest by those ne'er succeed.
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In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
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Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
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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.
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I dwell in possibility.
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Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
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To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
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If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
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I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
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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.
From Selected Poems
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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.
From Dickinson: Poems
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The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--
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The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We cherish all the past, we glide a-down the present, awake yet dreaming; but the future of ours together—there the bird sings loudest, and the sun shines always there...
From Emily Dickinson: Letters
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That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality
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I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth,—the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
From The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
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Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not play on Graves—
Because there isn't Room—
Besides—it isn't even—it slants
And People come—

And put a Flower on it—
And hang their faces so—
We're fearing that their Hearts will drop—
And crush our pretty play—

And so we move as far
As Enemies—away—
Just looking round to see how far
It is—Occasionally—
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Success is counted sweetest by those ne'er succeed.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I dwell in possibility.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Dickinson: Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We cherish all the past, we glide a-down the present, awake yet dreaming; but the future of ours together—there the bird sings loudest, and the sun shines always there...
From Emily Dickinson: Letters
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth,—the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
From The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not play on Graves—
Because there isn't Room—
Besides—it isn't even—it slants
And People come—

And put a Flower on it—
And hang their faces so—
We're fearing that their Hearts will drop—
And crush our pretty play—

And so we move as far
As Enemies—away—
Just looking round to see how far
It is—Occasionally—
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Success is counted sweetest by those ne'er succeed.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I dwell in possibility.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Selected Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Dickinson: Poems
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We cherish all the past, we glide a-down the present, awake yet dreaming; but the future of ours together—there the bird sings loudest, and the sun shines always there...
From Emily Dickinson: Letters
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth,—the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
From The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not play on Graves—
Because there isn't Room—
Besides—it isn't even—it slants
And People come—

And put a Flower on it—
And hang their faces so—
We're fearing that their Hearts will drop—
And crush our pretty play—

And so we move as far
As Enemies—away—
Just looking round to see how far
It is—Occasionally—
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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