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Emily Dickinson

94 quotes

• “Much madness is divinest sense To a discerning eye; Much sense the starkest madness. 'Tis the majority In this, as all, prevails. Assent, and you are sane; Demur,—you're straightway dangerous, And handled with a chain.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – In Corners – till a Day The Owner passed – identified – And carried Me away –And now We roam in Sovereign Woods – And now We hunt the Doe – And every time I speak for Him – The Mountains straight reply –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Nature is what we see, The Hill, the Afternoon— Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee, Nay—Nature is Heaven.Nature is what we hear, The Bobolink, the Sea— Thunder, the Cricket— Nay,—Nature is Harmony.Nature is what we know But have no art to say, So impotent our wisdom is To Her simplicity.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “New feet within my garden go, New fingers stir the sod; A troubadour upon the elm Betrays the solitude.New children play upon the green, New weary sleep below; And still the pensive spring returns, And still the punctual snow!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “No rack can torture me, My soul 's at liberty. Behind this mortal bone There knits a bolder oneYou cannot prick with saw, Nor rend with scymitar. Two bodies therefore be; Bind one, and one will flee.The eagle of his nest No easier divest And gain the sky, Than mayest thou,Except thyself may be Thine enemy; Captivity is consciousness, So's liberty.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Not with a Club, the Heart is broken Nor with a Stone – A Whip so small you could not see it I've knownTo lash the Magic Creature Till it fell, Yet that Whip's Name Too noble then to tell.Magnanimous as Bird By Boy descried – Singing unto the Stone Of which it died –Shame need not crouch In such an Earth as Ours – Shame – stand erect – The Universe is yours.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Our journey had advanced; Our feet were almost come To that odd fork in Being's road, Eternity by term.Our pace took sudden awe, Our feet reluctant led. Before were cities, but between, The forest of the dead.Retreat was out of hope,— Behind, a sealed route, Eternity's white flag before, And God at every gate.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers - Untouched by Morning - And untouched by noon - Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone -Grand go the Years, In the Crescent above them - Worlds scoop their Arcs - And Firmaments - row - Diadems - drop - And Doges surrender - Soundless as Dots, On a Disk of Snow.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “So proud she was to die It made us all ashamed That what we cherished, so unknown To her desire seemed.So satisfied to go Where none of us should be, Immediately, that anguish stooped Almost to jealousy.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Some Days retired from the rest In soft distinction lie, The Day that a companion came— Or was obliged to die.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – I keep it, staying at Home – With a Bobolink for a Chorister – And an Orchard, for a Dome –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “God preaches, a noted Clergyman – And the sermon is never long, So instead of getting to Heaven, at last – I'm going, all along.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the culprit,—Life!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Bustle in a House The Morning after Death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon Earth -The Sweeping up the Heart And putting Love away We shall not want to use again Until Eternity -”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires a sorest need.Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of VictoryAs he defeated – dying – On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Burst agonized and clear!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant – Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That such have died enables us The tranquiller to die; That such have lived, certificate For immortality.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The blunder is to estimate,— "Eternity is Then," We say, as of a station. Meanwhile he is so near, He joins me in my ramble, Divides abode with me, No friend have I that so persists As this Eternity.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A Vastness, as a Neighbor, came, A Wisdom, without Face, or Name, A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home And so the Night became.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The distance that the dead have gone Does not at first appear; Their coming back seems possible For many an ardent year.And then, that we have followed them We more than half suspect, So intimate have we become With their dear retrospect.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The face we choose to miss, Be it but for a day— As absent as a hundred years When it has rode away.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The grass so little has to do,— A sphere of simple green, With only butterflies to brood, And bees to entertain,And stir all day to pretty tunes The breezes fetch along, And hold the sunshine in its lap And bow to everything;And thread the dews all night, like pearls, And make itself so fine,— A duchess were too common For such a noticing.And even when it dies, to pass In odors so divine, As lowly spices gone to sleep, Or amulets of pine.And then to dwell in sovereign barns, And dream the days away,— The grass so little has to do, I wish I were a hay!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If Aims impel these Astral Ones The ones allowed to know Know that which makes them as forgot As Dawn forgets them – now”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Soul selects her own Society – Then – shuts the Door – To her divine Majority – Present no more –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I've known her – from an ample nation – Choose One – Then – close the Valves of her attention – Like Stone –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The sweets of Pillage can be known To no one but the Thief, Compassion for Integrity Is his divinest Grief.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is a solitude of space, A solitude of sea, A solitude of death, but these Society shall be, Compared with that profounder site, That polar privacy, A Soul admitted to Itself: Finite Infinity.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is a word Which bears a sword Can pierce an armed man. It hurls its barbed syllables,— At once is mute again. But where it fell The saved will tell On patriotic day, Some epauletted brother Gave his breath away.Wherever runs the breathless sun, Wherever roams the day, There is its noiseless onset, There is its victory! Behold the keenest marksman! The most accomplished shot! Time's sublimest target Is a soul "forgot"!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons - That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes -Heavenly Hurt, it gives us - We can find no scar, But internal difference - Where the Meanings, are -”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “They shut me up in Prose - As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet - Because they liked me "still" -Still! Could themself have peeped - And seen my Brain - go round - They might as wise have lodged a Bird For Treason - in the Pound -”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This is my letter to the World That never wrote to Me – The simple News that Nature told – With tender Majesty Her Message is committed To Hands I cannot see – For love of Her – Sweet – countrymen – Judge tenderly – of Me”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies And lads and girls; Was laughter and ability and sighing, And frocks and curls.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To Whom the Mornings stand for Nights, What must the Midnights – be!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Truth – is as old as God – His Twin identity And will endure as long as He A Co-Eternity –And perish on the Day Himself is borne away From Mansion of the Universe A lifeless Deity.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Upon the gallows hung a wretch, Too sullied for the hell To which the law entitled him. As nature’s curtain fell The one who bore him tottered in, For this was woman’s son. "'Twas all I had," she stricken gasped; Oh, what a livid boon!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We outgrow love, like other things And put it in the Drawer – Till it an Antique fashion shows – Like Costumes Grandsires wore.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “What Soft – Cherubic Creatures – These Gentlewomen are – One would as soon assault a Plush – Or violate a Star –Such Dimity Convictions – A Horror so refined Of freckled Human Nature – Of Deity – ashamed –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Who has not found the Heaven – below – Will fail of it above – For Angels rent the House next ours, Wherever we remove –”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Who has not found the heaven below Will fail of it above. God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love.”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Wild nights - Wild nights! Were I with thee Wild nights should be Our luxury!Futile - the winds - To a Heart in port - Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart!Rowing in Eden - Ah - the Sea! Might I but moor - tonight - In thee!”

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source