From Jone Johnson Lewis,
Your Guide to Women's History.
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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 ...

More Women's Quotes:
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