105 Best Emily Dickinson Quotes From One Of America's Greatest Poets

Emily Dickinson was an American poet of the 19th century.

Emily Dickinson's works were not recognized during her lifetime. It was only later that her family discovered 1800 poems written by her.

Emily Dickinson was a prolific writer. She was in a prominent middle-class family and was known to prefer life in isolation.

She was inspired by poets such as John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. She ardently wrote letters to her close people during her lifetime. One of the most recurring topics in her writings is hope and death.

Emily Dickinson poem quotes will rekindle the hope in you and make you come to terms with life and death. So, without much delay, let us go through these Emily Dickinson quotes.

If you like what you read, then do check out Sylvia Plath quotes and Keats quotes.

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Famous Emily Dickinson Quotes

These iconic quotes by Emily Dickinson will make your day and let you know how mysteriously life works without any fail.

1. "The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."

-Emily Dickinson.

2. "Saying nothing sometimes says the most."

-Emily Dickinson.

3."  'Hope' is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -"

-Emily Dickinson.

4. "I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the wren; and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass, that the guest leaves."

-Emily Dickinson.

5. "To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

-Emily Dickinson.

6. "I dwell in Possibility –

A fairer House than Prose –

More numerous of Windows –

Superior – for Doors –"

-Emily Dickinson.

7. "Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell."

-Emily Dickinson.

8. "Forever – is composed of Nows –

'Tis not a different time –

Except for Infiniteness –

And Latitude of Home –"

-Emily Dickinson.

9. "Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it."

-Emily Dickinson.

10. "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."

-Emily Dickinson.

11. "Fortune befriends the bold."

-Emily Dickinson.

12. "He danced along the dingy days,

And this bequest of wings

Was but a book. "

-Emily Dickinson.

13. "Not knowing when the dawn will come

I open every door."

-Emily Dickinson.

14. "I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too?"

-Emily Dickinson.

15. "Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate."

-Emily Dickinson.

16. "People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles."

-Emily Dickinson.

17. "Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them."

-Emily Dickinson.

18. "How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!"

-Emily Dickinson.

19. "Beauty is not caused. It is."

-Emily Dickinson.

20. "I am out with lanterns, looking for myself."

-Emily Dickinson.

21. "To shut your eyes is to travel."

-Emily Dickinson.

22. "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.

23. "From this – experienced Here –

Remove the Dates – to These –

Let Months dissolve in further Months –

And Years – exhale in Years –"

-Emily Dickinson.

24. "Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes."

-Emily Dickinson.

25. "We were never intimate mother and children while she was our mother - but when she became our child, the affection came."

-Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson Quotes About Death

These handpicked quotes on death will truly mesmerize you.

26. "Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –"

-Emily Dickinson.

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

-Emily Dickinson.

28. "Parting is all we know of Heaven,

and all we need of Hell."

-Emily Dickinson.

29. "Of Visitors – the fairest –

For Occupation – This –

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise –"

-Emily Dickinson.

30. "I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room."

-Emily Dickinson.

31. "She died-this was the way she died;

And when her breath was done,

Took up her simple wardrobe

And started for the sun."

-Emily Dickinson.

32." 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."

-Emily Dickinson.

33. "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading – till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through –"

-Emily Dickinson.

34. "Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath."

-Emily Dickinson.

35. "The Carriage held but just Ourselves –And Immortality."

-Emily Dickinson.

36. "Death is a supple suitor, that wins at last."

-Emily Dickinson.

37. "Afraid? Of whom am I afraid? Not death. For who is he?"

-Emily Dickinson.

38. "Since then 'tis centuries; but each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity."

-Emily Dickinson

39. "I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality."

-Emily Dickinson.

40. "Those who have not found the heaven below,

will fail of it above."

-Emily Dickinson.

41. "Though I than He – may longer live

He longer must – than I –

For I have but the power to kill,

Without – the power to die."

-Emily Dickinson.

42. "A word is dead when it is said. Some say. I say it just begins to live that day."

Emily Dickinson.

43. "Heaven is what I cannot reach!"

-Emily Dickinson.

44. "And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down –

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing – then –"

-Emily Dickinson.

45. "How frugal is the chariot that bears a human soul."

-Emily Dickinson.

45. "A Toad, can die of Light -

Death is the Common Right

Of Toads and Men."

-Emily Dickinson.

46. "Love can do all but raise the Dead

I doubt if even that

From such a giant were withheld

Were flesh equivalent."

-Emily Dickinson.

47. "That short, potential stir

That each can make but once,

That bustle so illustrious

Tis almost consequence,

Is the éclat of death."

-Emily Dickinson.

48. "Heaven is so far of the mind that were the mind dissolved -- the site of it by architect could not again be proved."

-Emily Dickinson.

49. "Anger as soon as fed is dead; 'Tis starving makes it fat."

-Emily Dickinson.

50. "My life closed twice before its close."

-Emily Dickinson.

Emily Dickinson Love Quotes

Emily Dickinson quotes on love open our eyes about the intricacies of romance and lets us know how we can come in terms with it.

51. "Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems."

-Emily Dickinson.

52. "To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

-Emily Dickinson.

53. "The Heart is the Capital of the Mind—

The Mind is a single State—

The Heart and the Mind together make

A single Continent—"

-Emily Dickinson.

54. "Morning without you is a dwindled dawn."

-Emily Dickinson.

55. "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.

56. "They say that 'home is where the heart is.' I think it is where the house is, and the adjacent buildings."

-Emily Dickinson.

57. "If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain..."

-Emily Dickinson.

58. "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.

59. "The heart wants what it wants — or else it does not care."

-Emily Dickinson.

60." Love is like the wild rose-briar;

Friendship like the holly-tree."

-Emily Dickinson.

61. "You left me boundaries of pain

Capacious as the sea,

Between eternity and time,

Your consciousness and me."

-Emily Dickinson

62. "I love the cause that slew me."

-Emily Dickinson.

63. "Not with a club, the Heart is broken

Nor with a Stone –

A Whip so small you could not see it

I've known."

-Emily Dickinson.

64. "Sweet hour, blessed hour, to carry me to you, and to bring you back to me, long enough to snatch one kiss, and whisper goodbye again."

-Emily Dickinson.

65. "We outgrow love like other things and put it in a drawer."

-Emily Dickinson.

66. "I need you more and more, and the great world grows wider, and dear ones fewer and fewer, every day that you stay away. "

-Emily Dickinson.

67. "Judge tenderly of me."

-Emily Dickinson.

68. "The heart asks pleasure first, And then, excuse from pain."

-Emily Dickinson.

69. "Give me strength, Susie, write me of hope and love, and of hearts that endure..."

-Emily Dickinson.

70. "If you were here, we need not talk at all for our eyes would whisper for us and, your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language."

-Emily Dickinson.

Inspirational Emily Dickinson Quotes

If you are a book lover, here are some shortlisted Emily Dickinson quotes about hope that will open your inner mind and make you know yourself better.

71. "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. "

-Emily Dickinson.

72. "The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on."

-Emily Dickinson.

73. "If your Nerve, deny you

Go above your Nerve."

-Emily Dickinson.

74. "There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry."

-Emily Dickinson.

75. "But a Book is only the Heart's Portrait- every Page a Pulse."

-Emily Dickinson.

76. "The possible's slow fuse is lit by the Imagination."

-Emily Dickinson.

77. "I started early, took my dog,

And visited the sea;

The mermaids in the basement

Came out to look at me."

-Emily Dickinson.

78. "The heroism we recite

Would be a daily thing,

Did not ourselves the cubits warp

For fear to be a king."

-Emily Dickinson.

79. "The Bees — became as Butterflies —

The Butterflies — as Swans —

Approached — and spurned the narrow Grass —

And just the meanest Tunes."

-Emily Dickinson.

80. "Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed."

-Emily Dickinson.

81. "It is better to be the hammer than the anvil."

-Emily Dickinson.

82. "Did you ask me out with a bunch of Daisies, I should thank you, and accept -"

-Emily Dickinson.

83. "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.

84. "I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word."

-Emily Dickinson.

85. "A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King."

-Emily Dickinson.

86. "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.

87. "A wounded dear leaps the highest."

-Emily Dickinson.

88. "Wild nights – Wild nights!

Were I with thee

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!"

-Emily Dickinson.

89. "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.

90. "Bring me the sunset in a cup."

-Emily Dickinson.

Memorable Emily Dickinson Quotes

The Emily Dickinson quotes on poetry you will absolutely adore.

91. "To be alive ─  is Power."

-Emily Dickinson.

92. "The will is always near, dear, though the feet vary."

-Emily Dickinson.

93. "Consciousness is the only home of which we know."

-Emily Dickinson.

94. "Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon."

-Emily Dickinson.

95. "It is strange that the most intangible thing is the most adhesive."

-Emily Dickinson.

96. "He has hid his rare life

From our gross eyes."

-Emily Dickinson.

97. "Looking back is best that is left,

Or if it be before,

Retrospection is prospect's half,

Sometimes almost more."

-Emily Dickinson.

98. "Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again—that is Life, is it not?"

-Emily Dickinson.

99. "The spirit looks upon the Dust

That fastened it so long

With indignation,

As a Bird

Defrauded of it's Song."

-Emily Dickinson.

100. "Opinion is a flitting thing, but the truth outlasts the sun."

-Emily Dickinson.

101. "Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true."

-Emily Dickinson.

102. "I can assure you... Am not I a pendant for telling you what I have been reading?"

-Emily Dickinson.

103. "If at length the smoldering anguish

Will not overcome-

And the palpitating Vinyard

In the dust, be overthrown."

-Emily Dickinson.

104. "Death is a Dialogue between

The Spirit and the Dust."

-Emily Dickinson.

105. "In this short life that only lasts ah hour how much-how little-is within our power."

-Emily Dickinson.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Emily Dickinson quotes, why not take a look at [Dylan Thomas quotes], or William Blake quotes?

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