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Emily Dickinson Quotes (1830-1886)
Poet, King
About Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 β May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 19th century. Although she wrote (at latest count) 1789 poems, only a few of them were published in her lifetime, all anonymously, and some perhaps without her knowledge.
Best Emily Dickinson Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Emily Dickinson quotes.
βTo Whom the Mornings stand for Nights,
What must the Midnights β be!β
What must the Midnights β be!β
βTo live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.β
βThe pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.β
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.β
βThat such have died enables us
The tranquiller to die;
That such have lived, certificate
For immortality.β
The tranquiller to die;
That such have lived, certificate
For immortality.β
βThe sweets of Pillage can be known
To no one but the Thief,
Compassion for Integrity
Is his divinest Grief.β
To no one but the Thief,
Compassion for Integrity
Is his divinest Grief.β
βSome Days retired from the rest
In soft distinction lie,
The Day that a companion cameβ
Or was obliged to die.β
In soft distinction lie,
The Day that a companion cameβ
Or was obliged to die.β
βSurgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the culprit,βLife!β
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the culprit,βLife!β
βA Vastness, as a Neighbor, came,
A Wisdom, without Face, or Name,
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home
And so the Night became.β
A Wisdom, without Face, or Name,
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home
And so the Night became.β
β"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see β
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.β
When Gentlemen can see β
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.β
βWe outgrow love, like other things
And put it in the Drawer β
Till it an Antique fashion shows β
Like Costumes Grandsires wore.β
And put it in the Drawer β
Till it an Antique fashion shows β
Like Costumes Grandsires wore.β
Emily Dickinson Quotes by Topic
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Emily Dickinson on Sky 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Sky →Emily Dickinson on Hope 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Hope →Emily Dickinson on Faith 2 quotes
βFaith β is the Pierless Bridge Supporting what We see Unto the Scene that We do not.β
Emily Dickinson on God 2 quotes
βThey say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.β
Emily Dickinson on Bees 2 quotes
βThe pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy.β
Emily Dickinson on Books 2 quotes
βThere 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.β
Emily Dickinson on Success
Emily Dickinson on Starvation
Emily Dickinson on Nature
Emily Dickinson on Poetry
Emily Dickinson on Honey
βThe pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy.β
What Emily Dickinson Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Emily Dickinson shared regarding contemporaries.
Emily Dickinson on Women
βWhat Soft β Cherubic Creatures β These Gentlewomen are β One would as soon assault a Plush β Or violate a Star β Such Dimity Convictions β A Horror so refined Of freckled Human Nature β Of Deity β ashamed.β
Quotes About Emily Dickinson
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Emily Dickinson from others.
Claribel AlegrΓa on Emily Dickinson
βIn English, you know who I love, and have translated? Emily Dickinson...I translated Dickinson. It came out in the Nuevo Diario a long time ago, in the beginning of the 1980s. I love her very much.β
Julia Alvarez on Emily Dickinson
ββNo approximate words in a poem,β Dickinson saysβ
Beth Brant on Emily Dickinson
βI am tired of hearing Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson held up as the matriarchs of feminist and/or women's literature. Woolf was a racist, Dickinson was a woman of privilege who never left her house, nor had to deal with issues beyond which white dress to wear on a given day. Race and class have yet to be addressed, or if they are discussed, it is on their terms not oursβ
Michael Bronski on Emily Dickinson
βthe contributions of people whom we may now identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender are integral and central to how we conceptualize our national history. Without the work of social activists, thinkers, writers, and artists such as We'Wha, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Martha "Calamity" Jane Cannary Burke, Edith Guerrier, Countee Cullen, Ethel Waters, Bayard Rustin, Roy Cohn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cherrie Moraga, and Lily Tomlin, we would not have the country that we have today.β
Rachel Carson on Emily Dickinson
βThere is another thing about my childhood that is interesting now, in the light of later happenings. I might have said, with Emily Dickinson: "I never saw a moor,/I never saw the sea;/Yet know I how the heather looks,/And what a wave must be." For I never saw the ocean until I went from college to the marine laboratories at Woods Hole, on Cape Cod. Yet as a child I was fascinated by the thought of it. I dreamed about it and wondered what it would look like.β
Rosario Castellanos on Emily Dickinson
βFriends dislike being apart. Separation, says Emily Dickinson, is all the Hell we need. Each shared moment is precious. And the only ones who can remember the hour of loneliness are those who survive it.β
Ann Druyan on Emily Dickinson
βThereβs no higher entitlement than thinking that you should live forever, when part of the beauty of nature is that even the stars die. That's what Emily Dickinson said: 'That it will never come again/is what makes life so sweet.' I believe that.β
Joy Harjo on Emily Dickinson
βMy mother was the first songwriter I knew; Emily Dickinson was the first poet and my grandmother the first storyteller...From Emily I learned that the immense silences I found within me were navigable by words and metaphor.β
Randall Jarrell on Emily Dickinson
βHer poetry is the diary or autobiography β though few diaries or autobiographies compare with it for intentional and, especially, unintentional truth β of an acute psychologist, a wonderful rhetorician, and one of the most individual writers who ever lived, one of those best able to express experience at its most nearly absolute.β
Judith Ortiz Cofer on Emily Dickinson 2 quotes
βOne of my favorite quotations from Emily Dickinson is: "Tell truth / But tell it slant."β
Gerda Lerner on Emily Dickinson
βFeminist literary critics have shown how in the 19th century women writers began to acknowledge women as their muses and their role models...Elizabeth Barrett Browning admired the work of George Sand and Mme. de StaΓ«l, while her work, in its turn, was an inspiration to Emily Dickinson...The list could be indefinitely extended to show the almost desperate search of writing women for authoritative female predecessors.β
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Emily Dickinson
About Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 β May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 19th century. Although she wrote (at latest count) 1789 poems, only a few of them were published in her lifetime, all anonymously, and some perhaps without her knowledge.