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Emily Dickinson Quotes

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com

Emily Dickinson, reclusive during her lifetime, wrote poetry which she kept private and which was, with few exceptions, unknown until its discovery after her death.

Selected Emily Dickinson Quotations

• 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.

• 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.

• We meet no Stranger, but Ourself

• The soul should always stand ajar. Ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

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

• I believe the love of God may be taught not to seem like bears.

• Some keep the Sabbath going to Church
The Soul Selects her own Society

• I'm nobody, Who are you?
Are you — Nobody, — too? …

• How dreary — to be — Somebody!
How public — like a Frog —
To tell one's name — the livelong June—
To an admiring Bog!

• 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.

• There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away
Nor any courses like a page of prancing poetry
This traverse may the poorest take without oppress of toil
How frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul!

• SUCCESS is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.

• The Brain — is wider than the Sky —
For — put them side by side —
The one the other will contain
With ease — and You — beside.

Faith: Two variants

Faith is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see,
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.

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

• Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without words
And never stops at all.

• Of 'shunning Men and Women' — they talk of Hallowed things, aloud — and embarrass my Dog — He and I dont object to them, if they'll exist their side. I think Carlo would please you — He is dumb, and brave — I think you would like the Chestnut Tree, I met in my walk. It hit my notice suddenly — and I thought the Skies were in Blossom —

• For my companions — the Hills — Sir — and the Sundown — and a Dog — large as myself, that my Father bought me — They are better than Beings — because they know — but do not tell.

• The right to perish might be thought
An undisputed right —
Attempt it, and the Universe
Upon the opposite
Will concentrate its officers —
You cannot even die
But nature and mankind must pause
To pay you scrutiny.

Emily Dickinson Quotes continued ...

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