I Felt it Shelter to Speak to You | 101 Emily Dickinson Quotes
Like no other writer, she is of great significance to American literature, as she paved the way for many of today’s poets. Although born in the early 1800’s, her words still sound timeless and her impact is still present. Her odd poems were a new introduction to the world and actually influenced readers to change they way they think and feel about things. In spite of the admirable work she left behind, during her life she lived mostly in isolation. Locals quickly considered her eccentric, as her preference to dress in white and be reluctant to greet guests grew more intense.
This amazingly talented woman covered problems of society and continued on to express her beliefs on love, family, death and romance. “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” is ranked among the greatest poems in the English language. Her fierce originality of thought is still recognized today. Here you will find a remarkable selection of quotes that will uplift and inspire you, friends, and loved ones.
Words of wisdom and thought by someone regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry shouldn’t be missed.
Table of Contents
- Best Emily Dickinson Quotes
- Famous Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- Emily Dickinson Love Quotes
- Emily Dickinson Quotes About Friendship
- Emily Dickinson Life Quotes
- Emily Dickinson Quotes About Death
- Dark Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- Emily Dickinson Quotes on Writing
- More Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- Emily Dickinson Quotes On Images
- Recommended Emily Dickinson Books
Best Emily Dickinson Quotes
- If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson
- Forever is composed of nows. Emily Dickinson
- Pardon my Sanity in a world insane. Emily Dickinson
- Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door.
Emily Dickinson - I dwell in possibility… Emily Dickinson
- The Heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care. Emily Dickinson
- I am out with lanterns, looking for myself. Emily Dickinson
- Beauty is not caused. It is. Emily Dickinson
- Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye. Emily Dickinson
- To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Emily Dickinson
- Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought. Emily Dickinson
- Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured. Emily Dickinson
- Bring me the sunset in a cup. Emily Dickinson
- Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it. Emily Dickinson
- Υour brain is wider than the sky. Emily Dickinson
- I wish you a kinder sea. Emily Dickinson
- Who never lost, are unprepared. Emily Dickinson
- One need not be a chamber to be haunted. Emily Dickinson
- The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul-BOOKS. Emily Dickinson
- I don’t profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense. Emily Dickinson
- 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. Emily Dickinson
- Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes. Emily Dickinson
- My love for those I love — not many — not very many, but don’t I love them so? Emily Dickinson
- Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon. Emily Dickinson
- How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! Emily Dickinson
- To shut your eyes is to travel. Emily Dickenson
- There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away… Emily Dickinson
- The only Commandment I ever obeyed — Consider the Lilies. Emily Dickinson
- Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind-Thy windy will to bear! Emily Dickinson
- Fortune befriends the bold. Emily Dickinson
- I work to drive the awe away, yet awe impels the work. Emily Dickinson
- Estranged from Beauty—none can be—
For Beauty is Infinity—
And power to be finite ceased
Before Identity was leased.
Emily Dickinson
Famous Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- Judge tenderly of me. Emily Dickinson
- 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 - We turn not older with years but newer every day. Emily Dickinson
- Nature is a haunted house–but Art–is a house that tries to be haunted. Emily Dickinson
- Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell. Emily Dickinson
- A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King. Emily Dickinson
- Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them. Emily Dickinson
- I have been bent and broken, but -I hope- into a better shape. Emily Dickinson
- But a Book is only the Heart’s Portrait- every Page a Pulse. Emily Dickinson
- The possible’s slow fuse is lit by the Imagination. Emily Dickinson
- Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.
Emily Dickinson - Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned. Emily Dickinson
- I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. Emily Dickinson
- Opinion is a fitting thing but truth outlasts the sun – if then we cannot own them both, possess the oldest one. Emily Dickinson
- Consulting summer’s clock,
But half the hours remain.
I ascertain it with a shock –
I shall not look again.
The second half of joy
Is shorter than the first.
The truth I do not dare to know
I muffle with a jest.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Love Quotes
- Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath. Emily Dickinson
- Morning without you is a dwindled dawn. Emily Dickinson
- Till I loved I never lived. Emily Dickinson
- The days will have more hours while you are gone away. Emily Dickinson
- Affection is like bread, unnoticed till we starve,
and then we dream of it, and sing of it, and paint it.
Emily Dickinson - Heart, we will forget him,
You and I, tonight!
You must forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
Emily Dickinson - Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. Emily Dickinson
- That I shall love always,
I argue thee
that love is life,
and life hath immortality.
Emily Dickinson - We outgrow love like other things and put it in a drawer, till it an antique fashion shows like costumes grandsires wore. Emily Dickinson
- That love is all there is, Is all we know of love. Emily Dickinson
- Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems. Emily Dickinson
- I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf
Emily Dickinson - Wild Nights—Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile—the winds—
To a heart in port—
Done with the compass—
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden—
Ah, the sea!
Might I but moor— Tonight—
In thee!
Emily Dickinson - Love not me for comely grace, For my pleasing eye or face; Nor for any outward part, No, nor for my constant heart: For those may fail or turn to ill, So thou and I shall sever. Keep therefore a true woman’s eye, And love me still, but know not why; So hast thou the same reason still To doat upon me ever. Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Quotes About Friendship
- I felt it shelter to speak to you. Emily Dickinson
- My friends are my estate. Emily Dickinson
- The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more.
Emily Dickinson - My only sketch, profile of heaven, is a large blue sky, and larger than the biggest I have seen in June–and in it are my friends–every one of them. Emily Dickinson
- I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still. 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 Dickenson - To see her is a picture—
To hear her is a tune—
To know her an Intemperance
As innocent as June—
To know her not—Affliction—
To own her for a Friend
A warmth as near as if the Sun
Were shining in your Hand.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Life Quotes
- Those who have not found the heaven below,
will fail of it above.
Emily Dickinson - That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet. Emily Dickinson
- Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickinson
- Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it. Emily Dickinson
- Emerging from an Abyss and entering it again—that is Life, is it not? Emily Dickinson
- Superiority to fate
Is difficult to learn.
’Tis not conferred by any,
But possible to earn
A pittance at a time,
Until, to her surprise,
The soul with strict economy
Subsists till Paradise.
Emily Dickinson - 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!
Emily Dickinson - 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? Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Quotes About Death
- The Heart asks Pleasure – first –
And then – Excuse from Pain –
And then – those little Anodynes
That deaden suffering –And then – to go to sleep –
And then – if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor
The liberty to die –
Emily Dickinson - Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
Emily Dickinson - Parting is all we know of Heaven,
and all we need of Hell.
Emily Dickenson - Dying is a wild night and a new road. Emily Dickinson
- We never know we go,—when we are going
We jest and shut the door;
Fate following behind us bolts it,
And we accost no more.
Emily Dickinson
Dark Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- A wounded dear leaps the highest. Emily Dickinson
- A great hope fell
You heard no noise
The ruin was within.
Emily Dickinson - An ear can break a human heart
As quickly as a spear,
We wish the ear had not a heart
So dangerously near.
Emily Dickinson - There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Emily Dickinson - I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.
Emily Dickinson - I see thee better in the dark
I do not need a light.
Emily Dickinson - Ah, brig, good-night
To crew and you;
The ocean’s heart too smooth, too blue,
To break for you.
Emily Dickinson - There are depths in every Consciousness, from which we cannot rescue ourselves – to which none can go with us. Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Quotes on Writing
- 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
- 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. Emily Dickinson
- The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. Emily Dickinson
- The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on. Emily Dickinson
- A Word that Breathes Distinctly
Has not the Power to Die
Emily Dickinson - A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
Emily Dickinson
More Quotes by Emily Dickinson
- The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee…
Emily Dickinson - 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.
Emily Dickinson - 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.
Emily Dickinson - 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 - 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.
Emily Dickinson - To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie—
True Poems flee
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson Quotes On Images
Recommended Emily Dickinson Books
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