“There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.”
“Assent -- and you are sane -- , demur -- you're straightway dangerous -- , and handled with a Chain -- .”
“I like a look of Agony, because I know it's true -- men do not sham Convulsion, nor simulate, a Throe --”
“His mind of man, a secret makes I meet him with a start he carries a circumference in which I have no part.”
“Of Consciousness, her awful Mate. The Soul cannot be rid -- as easy the secreting her behind the Eyes of God.”
“Drab Habitation of Whom? Tabernacle or Tomb -- or Dome of Worm -- or Porch of Gnome -- or some Elf's Catacomb?”
“Heaven is so far of the mind that were the mind dissolved -- the site of it by architect could not again be proved.”
“Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.”
“Surgeons must be very careful. When they take the knife!, underneath their fine incisions, stirs the Culprit -- Life!”
“We never know how high we are till we are called to rise; and then, if we are true to plan, our stature's touch the skies.”
“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.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul -- and sings the tunes without the words -- and never stops at all.”
“Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir.”
“'Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy! If I should fail, what poverty! And yet, as poor as I Have ventured all upon a throw; Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so this side the victory!”
“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.”