I tasted – careless – then –
I did not know the Wine
Came once a World – Did you?
Oh, had you told me so –
This Thirst would blister – easier – now.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Wine
Let us go in; the fog is rising.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Death, Dying
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
—Emily Dickinson
They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: God
To wait an Hour-is long-
If Love be just beyond-
To wait Eternity-is short-
If Love reward the end.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Romance
Beauty is not caused, – it is;
Chase it and it ceases,
Chase it not and it abides…
—Emily Dickinson
The Gleam of an heroic act,
Such strange illumination—
The Possible’s slow fuse it lit
By the Imagination.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Possibilities, Imagination
Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: One liners, Fame
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.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Service, Meaning, Living, Purpose, Giving, Heart, Kindness, Helpfulness
Drab Habitation of Whom? Tabernacle or Tomb—or Dome of Worm—or Porch of Gnome—or some Elf’s Catacomb?
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Home
Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Authors & Writing
Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Silence, Communication
We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. And then, if we are true to plan, our statures touch the skies.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Hope, Potential, Possibilities
Sunrise: day’s great progenitor.
—Emily Dickinson
Faith is a fine invention when Gentleman can see, but microscopes are prudent in an emergency.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Science, Scientists
A letter always seemed to me like Immortality, for is it not the Mind alone, without corporeal friend?
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Letters
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.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Poetry, Books
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Art, Poets, Poetry
Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Truth, Honesty
There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Books, Reading, Literature
After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Feelings, Pain
Tell the truth, but tell it slant.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Truth
He disposes Doom who hath suffered him.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity
Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Opportunity, One liners
Assent—and you are sane—, demur—you’re straightway dangerous—, and handled with a Chain—.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Dissent
The abdication of belief makes the behavior small—better an ignis fatuus than no illume at all.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Belief
His labour is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee’s experience
Of clovers and of noon.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Wisdom, Idleness, Failure, Action
The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
For – put them side by side –
The one the other will contain
With ease – and You – beside….
The Brain is just the weight of God –
For – Heft them – Pound for Pound –
And they will differ – if they do –
As Syllable from Sound.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Mind
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you—Nobody—too?
Then there’s a pair of us?
Don’t tell! they’d advertise—you know!
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Friendship
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 chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
—Emily Dickinson
Topics: Hope
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Edgar Allan Poe American Poet
- John Greenleaf Whittier American Poet, Abolitionist
- Thomas Bailey Aldrich American Writer
- Josiah Gilbert Holland American Editor, Novelist
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow American Poet
- Marge Piercy American Poet
- Celia Thaxter American Poet
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson American Reformer, Editor
- Anne Bradstreet American Poet
- Gertrude Stein American Writer
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