Quote Origin: To Live Is So Startling, It Leaves But Little Room for Other Occupations
Emily Dickinson? Mabel Loomis Todd? Rumer Godden? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Life can be overwhelming. The flow of experience induces intense sensations and emotions. Changes in the world and in each individual are continuous and unavoidable. Here are two versions of a pertinent observation:
(1) To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
(2) To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
This notion has been attributed to the famous nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson. Is this attribution correct? Would you please help me to find the correct phrasing and a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In the winter of 1871 Emily Dickinson sent a letter to Unitarian minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson who was one of her literary mentors. The letter appeared in the 1894 collection “Letters of Emily Dickinson” edited by Mabel Loomis Todd. Boldface added to excerpt by QI:¹
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations, though friends are, if possible, an event more fair.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In August 1870 Thomas Wentworth Higginson visited with Emily Dickinson, and he wrote about the event in “The Atlantic Monthly” in 1891. Dickinson’s comments indicated that her experiences in life were invigorating. The word “ecstasy” was spelled as “ecstacy” in the following excerpt from the magazine text:²
She went on talking constantly and saying, in the midst of narrative, things quaint and aphoristic. “Is it oblivion or absorption when things pass from our minds?” “Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it.” “I find ecstacy in living; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”
The “Letters of Emily Dickinson” edited by Mabel Loomis Todd appeared in 1894 as mentioned above. The volume was published again in 1951. Thus, the quotation under examination was further distributed.³
In 1968 English author Rumer Godden edited a collection of Dickinson’s poems which she published under the title “A Letter To the World: Poems for Young Readers”. Godden penned an introduction about Dickinson which contained a modified version of the quotation:⁴
It is true that in her thirties she went through some crisis that brought what seems a crucible of suffering, with a growing apprehension — in both senses of the word — of the invisible forces round about us, which she faced with stoical wisdom, always keeping her poise. It certainly brought a surge of poetry; from 1860 onward Emily Dickinson’s life and her poetry — one the echo of the other — totally engrossed her. “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else,” she wrote.
Godden, also placed this version of the quotation by itself on page twenty of her book; however, she did not give a precise citation. QI conjectures Godden was paraphrasing or misremembering the statement in the Winter 1871 letter:
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
from a letter by EMILY DICKINSON
In 1975 “Do You Know What Day Tomorrow Is? A Teacher’s Almanac” by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Misha Arenstein included the following item which matched the version in Godden’s book:⁵
DECEMBER 10, 1830
Birth date of Emily DickinsonTo live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
— from a letter by Emily Dickinson
In 1991 the compilation “Light One Candle: Quotes for Hope and Action” included the following entry:⁶
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
Emily Dickinson
In 1996 “The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women” compiled by Rosalie Maggio included the following instance together with a citation:⁷
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
Emily Dickinson (1871), in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 (1894)
In 2000 “Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary” also contained this instance:⁸
EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886). American poet
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.
In conclusion, Emily Dickinson deserves credit for the words she wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in the winter of 1871. Often the quotation is truncated. The words after the word “occupations” are omitted. A modified version of the quotation using the phrase “little time for anything else” entered circulation by 1968.
Image Notes: Photogravure of Emily Dickinson by artist Laura Coombs Hill from “The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson” (1924) by Her Niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Prudence Crowther whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
[1] 1894, Letters of Emily Dickinson, Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, Volume 2 of 2, Chapter 7: To Mr Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Letter To: Mr. T. W. Higginson, Letter From: Emily Dickinson, Letter Date: Winter 1871, Quote Page 316, Roberts Brothers, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link
[2] 1891 October, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 68, Number 408, Emily Dickinson’s Letters by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Start Page 444, Quote Page 453, Column 1, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link
[3] 1951, Letters of Emily Dickinson, Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd, Chapter 7: To Mr Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Letter To: Mr. T. W. Higginson, Letter From: Emily Dickinson, Quote Page 266, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio. (Verified with scans)
[4] 1969 (1968 Copyright), A Letter To the World — Emily Dickinson: Poems for Young Readers Chosen and Introduced by Rumer Godden, Section: Introduction by Rumer Godden, Quote Page 9 and 20, The Macmillan Company, New York. (Verified with scans)
[5] 1975, Do You Know What Day Tomorrow Is? A Teacher’s Almanac by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Misha Arenstein, Chapter: December, Quote Page 60, Citation Press, New York. (Verified with scans)
[6] 1991, Light One Candle: Quotes for Hope and Action, Compiled by Arrington Chambliss, Wayne Meisel, and Maura Wolf, Chapter: Celebration, Quote Page 62, Peter Pauper Press, White Plains, New York. (Verified with scans)
[7] 1996 Copyright, The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women, Compiled by Rosalie Maggio, Topic: Life, Quote Page 397, Column 2, Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans)
[8] 2000, Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary, Edited by Leonard Roy Frank, Person: Emily Dickinson, Quote Page 70, Random House, New York. (Verified with scans)
