50 Emily Dickinson Quotes (About Poetry, Life, Love, Hope…)

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was one of the most treasured American poets. She was born in Massachusetts into a notable family with powerful ties to its community.

Since she was a very private person, she gained fame only after her death. Some people claim that she lived much of her life in simplicity and reclusive isolation. Even though she was deemed odd and eccentric by locals, her creativity was at full bloom as she wrote some of the most excellent and most compelling poetry ever written.

Most of her works were on the themes of death and immortality. A trademark style of Dickinson was to write far-reaching ideas in short, compact phrases. Her poems are also unique for the era in which she was born.

Her writings are thought-provoking and left a lasting mark on the mind of the readers around the world. Here are the top 50 Emily Dickinson quotes and sayings about life, poetry, hope, love, and everything else in between.

Emily Dickinson Quotes About Life

1. “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”

2. “Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell.”

3. “I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.”

4. “Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.” 

Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #life #old #age

5. “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.”

6. “Dying is a wild night and a new road.”

7. “That it will never come again is what makes life sweet.”

8. “Find ecstasy in life the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

Emily Dickinson Quotes About Love

1. “Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.”

2. “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”

3. “I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.” 

I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #love #life #immortality

4. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”

5. “To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”

6. “Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.”

Emily Dickinson Quotes About Hope

1. “Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.”

2. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”

3. “Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.”

4. “I dwell in possibility.” 

I dwell in possibility - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #hope #possibility

5. “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.”

6. “I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.”

Emily Dickinson Quotes About Poetry

1. “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

2. “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”

3. “There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.”

4. “A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.” 

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #poetry #word #dead

Emily Dickinson, More Quotes And Sayings

1. “How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”

2. “He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.”

3. “My friends are my estate.”

4. “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.”

5. “Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.”

6. “I’m nobody, who are you?”

7. “A wounded deer leaps the highest.” 

A wounded deer leaps the highest - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #wounded #leaps #highest

8. “Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”

9. “Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.”

10. “Luck is not chance, it’s toil fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”

11. “After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.”

12. “Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon.”

13. “The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” 

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience - Emily Dickinson. #quotes #soul #ecstatic #experience

14. “Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.”

15. “To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do if bees are few.”

16. “Fortune befriends the bold.”

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

18. “Beauty is not caused. It is.”

19. “It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.”

20. “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.”

21. “Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.” 

Saying nothing... sometimes says the most. #quotes #saying #nothing

22. “The brain is wider than the sky.”

23. “Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.”

24. “Where thou art, that is home.”

25. “Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.”

26. “Forever is composed of nows.”

If you would like to read more of Emily Dickinson’s poems, we would suggest you read The Essential Emily Dickinson.

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