Emily Dickinson

Beauty is not caused. It is.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.

— 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

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

— 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

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

I died for beauty, but was scarce

— 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

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

A wounded dear leaps the highest

— Emily Dickinson

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

— Emily Dickinson

Saying nothing... sometimes says the most.

— Emily Dickinson

Forever is composed of nows.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

I dwell in possibility.

— Emily Dickinson

One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted —

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--

— Emily Dickinson

Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.

— Emily Dickinson

Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.

— Emily Dickinson

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

— Emily Dickinson

I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

— Emily Dickinson

Where thou art, that is home.

— Emily Dickinson

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

— Emily Dickinson

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

— Emily Dickinson

There's a certain slant of light,

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm.

— Emily Dickinson

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don't doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

— Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody, who are you?

— 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

After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.

— Emily Dickinson

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!

— 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

One need not be a chamber to be haunted.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— 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

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

— Emily Dickinson

Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.

— Emily Dickinson

The brain is wider than the sky.

— Emily Dickinson

Not with a club, the Heart is broken

— Emily Dickinson

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

The bustle in a house

— Emily Dickinson

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

— Emily Dickinson

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

— Emily Dickinson

Fortune befriends the bold.

— Emily Dickinson

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

— Emily Dickinson

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

— 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

Inebriate of Air — am I —

— Emily Dickinson

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.

— 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

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

— Emily Dickinson

I stepped from Plank to Plank

— Emily Dickinson

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—

— 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

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

Dying is a wild night and a new road.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers

— Emily Dickinson

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

— Emily Dickinson

We do not play on Graves—

— Emily Dickinson

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

My friends are my estate.

— Emily Dickinson

The Soul selects her own Society—

— Emily Dickinson

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

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

— Emily Dickinson

Look back on Time, with kindly eyes -

— Emily Dickinson

We never know how high we are

— Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is Divinest Sense, to a Discerning Eye....

— Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty, but was scarce

— Emily Dickinson

Her breast is fit for pearls,

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,

— Emily Dickinson

Where thou art, that is home.

— Emily Dickinson

Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.

— Emily Dickinson

He ate and drank the precious words,

— Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody! Who are you?

— Emily Dickinson

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

— 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

I can wade Grief—

— Emily Dickinson

The sun just touched the morning;

— Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him!

— Emily Dickinson

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one Heart from breaking,

— Emily Dickinson

Success is counted sweetest

— Emily Dickinson

Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.

— Emily Dickinson

Where thou art, that is home.

— Emily Dickinson

To see the Summer Sky

— Emily Dickinson

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

Tell all the truth but tell it slant.

— Emily Dickinson

I wonder if it hurts to live,

— Emily Dickinson

How happy is the little stone

— Emily Dickinson

My life closed twice before its close;

— Emily Dickinson

They say that “time assuages,”—

— Emily Dickinson

The bustle in a house

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

— Emily Dickinson

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’tis

— Emily Dickinson

I held a jewel in my fingers

— Emily Dickinson

I miss you, mourn for you, and walk the streets alone- often at night, beside, I fall asleep in tears, for your dear face, yet not one word comes back to me. If it is finished, tell me, and I will raise the lid to my box of Phantoms, and lay one more love in; but if it lives and beats still, still lives and beats for me, then say so, and I will strike the strings to one more strain of happiness before I die.

— Emily Dickinson

Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.

— Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty, but was scarce

— 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

God is sitting here, looking into my very soul to see if I think right thoughts. Yet I am not afraid, for I try to be right and good; and He knows every one of my struggles.

— Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

— 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. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

— Emily Dickinson

"Faith" is a fine invention In an Emergency.

— Emily Dickinson

She died--this was the way she died;

— Emily Dickinson

How dreary — to be — Somebody!

— Emily Dickinson

The Soul selects her own Society — Present no more —

— Emily Dickinson

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church —And an Orchard, for a Dome—

— Emily Dickinson

God preaches, a noted Clergyman —I’m going, all along.

— Emily Dickinson

I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still.

— Emily Dickinson

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is

— Emily Dickinson

Dreams — are well — but Waking's better,

— Emily Dickinson

Love — thou art Veiled —

— Emily Dickinson

I dwell in possibility.

— Emily Dickinson

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died —Between the Heaves of Storm —

— Emily Dickinson

Since then — 'tis Centuries — and yet

— Emily Dickinson

We outgrow love, like other thingsLike Costumes Grandsires wore.

— Emily Dickinson

To Whom the Mornings stand for Nights,What must the Midnights — be!

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

A Vastness, as a Neighbor, came,And so the Night became.

— Emily Dickinson

A little Madness in the SpringIs wholesome even for the King.

— Emily Dickinson

More than the Grave is closed to me —How similar appears —

— Emily Dickinson

If Aims impel these Astral OnesAs Dawn forgets them — now

— Emily Dickinson

Who has not found the Heaven — below —Will fail of it above —

— Emily Dickinson

We never know we go,—when we are going

— Emily Dickinson

I took one Draught of Life —The market price, they said.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Much madness is divinest sense And handled with a chain.

— Emily Dickinson

Surgeons must be very careful\t Stirs the culprit,—Life!

— Emily Dickinson

It ’s such a little thing to weep, We men and women die!

— Emily Dickinson

Who has not found the heaven below His furniture is love.

— Emily Dickinson

Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn

— Emily Dickinson

Upon the gallows hung a wretch, Oh, what a livid boon!

— Emily Dickinson

It might be easier To perish of delight.

— Emily Dickinson

How happy is the little stone\t In casual simplicity.

— Emily Dickinson

One need not be a chamber to be haunted.

— Emily Dickinson

The pedigree of honey\t Is aristocracy.

— Emily Dickinson

Let us strive together to part with time more reluctantly, to watch the pinions of the fleeting moment until they are dim in the distance, and the new-coming moment claims our attention.

— Emily Dickinson

Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn That darkness is about to pass.

— Emily Dickinson

In a serener Bright,

— Emily Dickinson

Love is anterior to life, The exponent of breath.

— Emily Dickinson

This is the Hour of Lead –

— Emily Dickinson

I never saw a moor, As if the chart were given.

— Emily Dickinson

A death-blow is a life-blow to some They died, vitality begun.

— Emily Dickinson

That such have died enables us For immortality.

— Emily Dickinson

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

— Emily Dickinson

Fame is a fickle food\t Men eat of it and die.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

The blunder is to estimate,— As this Eternity.

— Emily Dickinson

There is a solitude of space,\t Finite Infinity.

— Emily Dickinson

Beauty is not caused. It is.

— Emily Dickinson

Some Days retired from the rest Or was obliged to die.

— Emily Dickinson

The sweets of Pillage can be known Is his divinest Grief.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

The face we choose to miss, When it has rode away.

— Emily Dickinson

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don't doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

They say that “time assuages,”—

— Emily Dickinson

My friends are my estate.

— 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

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

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

— Emily Dickinson

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson