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Emily Dickinson Quotes

1830–1886 United States

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 19th century.

United States
19th-century poets
Authors
Poets

Also known as: Dickinson, Emily

Random Emily Dickinson quote

66 quotes

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.

It's such a little thing to weep,
So short a thing to sigh;
And yet by trades the size of these
We men and women die!

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.

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

Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

The mountain at a given distance
In amber lies;
Approached, the amber flits a little,—
And that's the skies!

The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, be hanged on fatal tree.

To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.

The face we choose to miss,
Be it but for a day—
As absent as a hundred years
When it has rode away.

How Strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

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.

Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God's residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.

Faith is a fine invention
For gentlemen who see;
But Microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.

It might be easier
To fail with land in sight,
Than gain my blue peninsula
To perish of delight.

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see –
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

That such have died enables us
The tranquiller to die;
That such have lived, certificate
For immortality.

My friends are my "estate." Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I'm going, all along.

This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies
And lads and girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Emily Dickinson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.