Emily Dickinson

“Forever is composed of nows.”

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

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

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

“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!”

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

“The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care”

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

“Eden is that old-fashioned House We dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode Until we drive away.”

“The mere sense of living is joy enough.”

“A wounded deer leaps the highest.”

“One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted — One need not be a House — The Brain has Corridors — surpassing Material Place —”

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

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

“Where thou art, that is home.”

“Till I loved I never lived.”

“My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.”

“Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labour, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children played, Their lessons scarcely done; We passe...”

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

“There is a pain – so utter – It swallows substance up – Then covers the Abyss with Trance – So Memory can step Around – across – opon it – As one within a Swoon – Goes safely – where an open eye – Would drop Him – Bone by Bone.”

“We cherish all the past, we glide a-down the present, awake yet dreaming; but the future of ours together—there the bird sings loudest, and the sun shines always there...”

“Sweet hours have perished here; This is a mighty room; Within its precincts hopes have played,— Now shadows in the tomb.”

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

“Faith—is the Pierless Bridge Supporting what We see Unto the Scene that We do not— Too slender for the eye It bears the Soul as bold As it were rocked in Steel With Arms of Steel at either side— It joins—behind the Veil To what, could We presume The Bridge would cease to be To Our far, vacillating F...”

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

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

“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.”

“Read, sweet, how others strove, Till we are stouter; What they renounced, Till we are less afraid; How many times they bore The faithful witness, Till we are helped, As if a kingdom cared! Read then of faith That shone above the fagot; Clear strains of hymn The river could not drown; Brave names of...”

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

“I dwell in possibility.”

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

“Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.”

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

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

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

“Fortune befriends the bold.”

“In such a porcelain life, one likes to be sure that all is well lest one stumble upon one's hopes in a pile of broken crockery.”

“I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.”

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

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

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

“Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“Tell the truth, but tell it slant.”

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

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

“A Word is Dead A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day.”

“One need not be a chamber to be haunted.”

“Hope is the thing with feathers That 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 storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chilliest land And on the strangest sea;...”

“In a serener Bright, In a more golden light I see Each little doubt and fear, Each little discord here Removed.”

“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.”

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

“A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think.”

“I stepped from Plank to Plank So slow and cautiously The Stars about my Head I felt, About my Feet the Sea. I knew not but the next Would be my final inch — This gave me that precarious Gait Some call Experience.”

“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 join Unto the thought before— But Sequence ravelled out of Sound Like Balls—upon a Floor.”

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”

“A charm invests a face Imperfectly beheld,— The lady dare not lift her veil For fear it be dispelled. But peers beyond her mesh, And wishes, and denies,— Lest interview annul a want That image satisfies.”

“Much Madness Is Divinest Sense Much Madness is divinest Sense — To a discerning Eye — Much Sense — the starkest Madness — 'Tis the Majority In this, as All, prevail — Assent — and you are sane — Demur — you're straightway dangerous — And handled with a Chain —”

“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.”

“Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need.”

“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 conc...”

“To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie— True Poems flee—”

“Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn Indicative that suns go down; The notice to the startled grass That darkness is about to pass.”