Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet who is now considered one of the most important and influential poets of the 19th century. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, she lived a reclusive life and only a handful of her poems were published during her lifetime. After her death, her sister discovered hundreds of poems in Dickinson’s belongings, which were published and gained recognition for their innovative use of language, unconventional punctuation, and unique perspectives on nature, love, and spirituality. Dickinson’s work continues to inspire and influence poets and readers around the world.
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Here are some meaningful Emily Dickinson quotes about life and love.
Famous Emily Dickinson Quotes
1. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops at all.”
2. “One step at a time is all it takes to get you there.”
3. “I dwell in possibility.”
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4. “Pardon my sanity in a world insane.”
5. “Forever is composed of rows.”
6. “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
7. “We turn not older with years but newer every day.”
8. “Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.”
9. “The Heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care.”
10. “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.”
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11. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”
12. “Saying nothing sometimes says the most.”
13. “Those who have not found the heaven below, will fail of it above.”
14. “Fortune befriends the bold.”
15. “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?”
16. “If your Nerve, deny you – Go above your Nerve.”
17. “Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.”
18. “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
19. “Till I loved I never lived.”
20. “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”
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21. “A wounded dear leaps the highest.”
22. “The brain is wider than the sky.”
23. “To travel far, there is no better ship than a book.”
24. “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there ’s a pair of us – don’t tell! They ’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!”
25. “Beauty is not caused. It is.”
26. “Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.”
27. “The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS.”
28. “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.”
29. “Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.”
30. “I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too?”
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31. “We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.”
32. “Love is everything. And that’s all we know about it.”
33. “Parting is all we know of Heaven, and all we need of Hell.”
34. “I tasted life.”
35. “This is my letter to the world That never wrote to me.”
36. “You can stay young as long as you learn.”
37. “There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away, Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry – This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll – How frugal is the Chariot That bears a Human soul.”
38. “I have an appetite for silence.”
39. “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
40. “I felt it shelter to speak to you.”
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41. “Bring me the sunset in a cup.”
42. “Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.”
43. “Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.”
44. “To multiply the harbors does not reduce the sea.”
45. “A word is dead when it’s been said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.”
46. “In the name of the bee And of the butterfly And of the breeze, amen!”
47. “I must go in, the fog is rising.”
48. “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.”
49. “That love is all there is, Is all we know of love.”
50. “Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured.”
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51. “The possible slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.”
52. “This World is not Conclusion. A Sequel stands beyond- Invisible, as Music- But positive, as Sound.”
53. “I measure every grief I meet with narrow, probing eyes – I wonder if it weighs like mine – or has an easier size.”
54. “How happy is the little stone That rambles in the road alone, And doesn’t care about careers, And exigencies never fears; Whose coat of elemental brown A passing universe put on; And independent as the sun, Associates or glows alone, Fulfilling absolute decree In casual simplicity.”
55. “November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”
56. “My life closed twice before its close.”
57. “I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could finish enmity Nor had I time to love: but since Some industry must be, The little toil of love, I thought, Was large enough for me.”
58. “I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in Heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot, As if a chart were given.”
59. “I don’t profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.”
60. “This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me, the simple news that nature told, with tender majesty. Her message is committed, to hands I cannot see; for love of her, sweet countrymen, judge tenderly of me.”
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61. “Nature is a haunted house – but Art – is a house that tries to be haunted.”
62. “A great hope fell You heard no noise The ruin was within.”
63. “I confess that I love him, I rejoice that I love him, I thank the maker of Heaven and Earth that gave him to me. The exultation floods me.”
64. “But a Book is only the Heart’s Portrait- every Page a Pulse.”
65. “Unto a broken heart No other one may go Without the high prerogative Itself hath suffered too.”
66. “Unable are the Loved to die For Love is Immortality, Nay, it is Deity – Unable they that love – to die For Love reforms Vitality Into Divinity.”
67. “A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King.”
68. “Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”
69. “The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will include With ease, and you beside.”
70. “Until you have loved, you cannot become yourself.”
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71. “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, Until their time befalls.”
72. “The lovely flowers embarrass me. They make me regret I am not a bee…”
73. “Where thou art, that is home.”
74. “After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.”
75. “Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.”
76. “Just a turn of the doorknob, and there lies freedom.”
77. “One need not be a chamber to be haunted.”
78. “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”
79. “Heart, we will forget him, You and I, tonight! You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.”
80. “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”
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81. “I imagine therefore I belong and am free.”
82. “Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.”
83. “Much Madness is Divinest Sense, to a Discerning Eye…”
84. “Judge tenderly of me.”
85. “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”
86. “One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place.”
87. “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.”
88. “To lose what we have never owned might seem an eccentric bereavement, but Presumption has its own affliction as well as claim.”
89. “My friends are my estate. Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them!”
90. “The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him is aristocracy.”
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91. “The sun just touched the morning; The morning, happy thing, Supposed that he had come to dwell, And life would be all spring.”
92. “This is the Hour of Lead- Remembered, if outlived, As freezing persons, recollect the Snow- First-Chill-then Stupor- then the letting go –.”
93. “That I shall love always, I argue thee that love is life, and life hath immortality.”
94. “Hope is a strange invention – A Patent of the Heart – In unremitting action Yet never wearing out.”
95. “The hearts that never lean must fall.”
96. “It is strange that the most intangible thing is the most adhesive.”
97. “How do most people live without any thought? There are many people in the world, – you must have noticed them in the street, – how do they live? How do they get strength to put on their clothes in the morning?”
98. “The Truth never flaunted a sign.”
99. “How much can come And much can go, And yet abide the world!”
100. “The WILL is always near, dear, though the feet vary.”