Emily Dickinson Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. Heart, we will forget him,You and I, tonight!You must forget the warmth he gave,I will forget the light.

2. I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? For beauty, I replied. And I for truth,—the two are one; We brethren are, he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names. The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

3. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

4. Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.

5. Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

6. Success is counted sweetest by those ne'er succeed.

7. The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care

8. Till I loved I never lived.

9. 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. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

10. We outgrow love like other things and put it in a drawer, till it an antique fashion shows like costumes grandsires wore.

11. A great hope fellYou heard no noiseThe ruin was within.

12. A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

13. A precious, mouldering pleasure ’tis To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young. His quaint opinions to inspect, His knowledge to unfold On what concerns our mutual mind, The literature of old The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

14. A Word is DeadA word is deadWhen it is said,Some say. I say it justBegins to liveThat day. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

15. A wounded dear leaps the highest

16. Faith is a fine inventionWhen gentlemen can see,But microscopes are prudentIn an emergency.

17. 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.He danced along the dingy days,And this bequest of wingsWas but a book. What libertyA loosened spirit brings!

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

19. Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the words,And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.I've heard it in the chilliest landAnd on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

20. How happy is the little stoneThat rambles in the road alone,And doesn't care about careers,And exigencies never fears;Whose coat of elemental brownA passing universe put on;And independent as the sun,Associates or glows alone,Fulfilling absolute decreeIn casual simplicity.

21. I can wade Grief—Whole Pools of it—I'm used to that—But the least push of JoyBreaks up my feet—And I tip—drunken—Let no Pebble—smile—'Twas the New Liquor—That was all! Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson's Poems

22. I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—As if my Brain had split—I tried to match it—Seam by Seam—But could not make it fit. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

23. I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—As if my Brain had split—I tried to match it—Seam by Seam—But could not make it fit.The thought behind, I strove to joinUnto the thought before—But Sequence ravelled out of SoundLike Balls—upon a Floor. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

24. I had been hungry all the years-My noon had come, to dine-I, trembling, drew the table nearAnd touched the curious wine. 'Twas this on tables I had seenWhen turning, hungry, lone,I looked in windows, for the wealthI could not hope to own. I did not know the ample bread,'Twas so unlike the crumbThe birds and I had often sharedIn Nature's diningroom. The plenty hurt me, 'twas so new,--Myself felt ill and odd,As berry of a mountain bushTransplanted to the road. Nor was I hungry; so I foundThat hunger was a wayOf persons outside windows,The entering takes away. I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

25. I held a jewel in my fingers And went to sleep. The day was warm, and winds were prosy; I said: "'T will keep."I woke and chid my honest fingers,—The gem was gone; And now an amethyst remembrance Is all I own. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

26. I many times thought peace had come, When peace was far away; As wrecked men deem they sight the land At centre of the sea, And struggle slacker, but to prove, As hopelessly as I, How many the fictitious shores Before the harbor lie. Selected Poems

27. I measure every Grief I meetWith narrow, probing, Eyes;I wonder if It weighs like Mine,Or has an Easier size. I wonder if They bore it long,Or did it just begin?I could not tell the Date of Mine, It feels so old a pain. I wonder if it hurts to live,And if They have to try,And whether, could They choose between, It would not be, to die. I note that Some -- gone patient long --At length, renew their smile.An imitation of a LightThat has so little Oil. I wonder if when Years have piled,Some Thousands -- on the Harm Of early hurt -- if such a lapseCould give them any Balm; Or would they go on aching stillThrough Centuries above,Enlightened to a larger PainBy Contrast with the Love. The Grieved are many, I am told;The reason deeper lies, --Death is but oneand comes but once,And only nails the eyes. There's Grief of Want and Grief of Cold, --A sort they call "Despair";There's Banishment from native Eyes,In sight of Native Air. And though I may not guess the kindCorrectly, yet to meA piercing Comfort it affordsIn passing Calvary, To note the fashions of the Cross,And how they're mostly worn,Still fascinated to presumeThat Some are like My Own. I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

28. I miss you, mourn for you, and walk the streets alone- often at night, beside, I fall asleep in tears, for your dear face, yet not one word comes back to me. If it is finished, tell me, and I will raise the lid to my box of Phantoms, and lay one more love in; but if it lives and beats still, still lives and beats for me, then say so, and I will strike the strings to one more strain of happiness before I die. Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson

29. I stepped from Plank to PlankSo slow and cautiouslyThe Stars about my Head I felt,About my Feet the Sea.I knew not but the nextWould be my final inch —This gave me that precarious GaitSome call Experience. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

30. 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! The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson