Emily Dickinson Quotes (543 Quotes)

If certain, when this life was out --
That yours and mine, should be
I'd toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity --

Is Heaven a Place -- a Sky -- a Tree?

Waits any indurated mate
His wrinkled coming Home?

Angel's breathless ballot
Lingers to record thee --
Imps in eager Caucus
Raffle for my Soul!

Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence
As Gold the Pyrites would shun --
What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus
To meet so enabled a Man!

A mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

As nature's curtain fell
The one who bore him tottered in , --
For this was woman's son.

That it shall never come again is what makes life so sweet

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant Success in Circuit lies.

There's a certain slant of light, On winter afternoons, That oppresses, like the weight Of Cathedral tunes.

A Chill came up as from a shaft
Our noon became a well
A Thunder storm combines the charms
Of Winter and of Hell.

The life is thick -- I know it!

He joins me in my Ramble --
Divides abode with me --
No Friend have I that so persists
As this Eternity.

To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.

This World is not Conclusion. A Sequel stands beyond Invisible, as Music But positive, as Sound.

Beauty is not caused, - it is Chase it and it ceases, Chase it not and it abides...

Between the form of Life and Life
The difference is as big
As Liquor at the Lip between
And Liquor in the Jug
The latter -- excellent to keep --
But for ecstatic need
The corkless is superior --
I know for I have tried

Pain has an element of Blank It cannot recollect When it begun or if there were A time when it was not....

I saw, as if my Eye were on
Another, till a Thing
And now I know 'twas Light, because
It fitted them, came in.

The brain is wider than the sky.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

My best Acquaintances are those With Whom I spoke no Word The Stars that stated come to Town Esteemed Me never rude Although to their Celestial Call I failed to make reply My constantreverential Face Sufficient Courtesy.

That whoso sees this little flower
By faith may clear behold
The Bobolinks around the throne
And Dandelions gold.

Eternity will be
Velocity or Pause
At Fundamental Signals
From Fundamental Laws.

I'm nobody, who are you?

She went as quiet as the Dew
From an Accustomed flower.

Sunset that screens, reveals --
Enhancing what we see
By menaces of Amethyst
And Moats of Mystery.

I cannot live with You --
It would be Life --
And Life is over there --
Behind the Shelf

The grave my little cottage is,
Where "Keeping house" for thee
I make my parlor orderly
And lay the marble tea.

Glows Central -- like a Jewel
Between Diverging Golds --
The Minor One -- that gleamed behind --
And Vaster -- of the World's.

Some Vision of the World Cashmere --
I confidently see!

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

And Spirit turned unto the Dust
"Old Friend, thou knowest me,"
And Time went out to tell the News
And met Eternity.

They ask but our Delight --
The Darlings of the Soil
And grant us all their Countenance
For a penurious smile.

The heart asks pleasure first, and then excuse from pain, and then those little anodynes that deaden suffering

Of Heaven and Hell I also yield
The Right to reprehend
To whoso would commute this Face
For his less priceless Friend.

I cautious, scanned my little life --
I winnowed what would fade
From what would last till Heads like mine
Should be a-dreaming laid.

The Sun -- just touched the Morning --
The Morning -- Happy thing --
Supposed that He had come to dwell --
And Life would all be Spring!

Given to me without the Suit
Riches and Name and Realm --
Who was She to withhold from me
Penury and Home?

Nor when it altered, I could say,
For I had worn it, every day,
As constant as the Childish frock --
I hung upon the Peg, at night.

A Dew sufficed itself --
And satisfied a Leaf
And felt "how vast a destiny" --
"How trivial is Life!

By Clocks, 'twas Morning, and for Night
The Bells at Distance called --
But Epoch had no basis here
For Period exhaled.

My story has a moral --
I have a missing friend --
"Pleiad" its name, and Robin,
And guinea in the sand.

Then I -- my timid service done --
Tho' service 'twas, of Love --
Take up my little Violin --
And further North -- remove.

I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch --
This gave me that precarious Gait
Some call Experience.

To satin Races -- he is nought --
But Children on the Don,
Beneath his Tabernacles, play,
And Dnieper Wrestlers, run.

And lean -- and view it sidewise --
And add "How cold -- it grew" --
And "Was it conscious -- when it stepped
In Immortality?

A Wounded Deer -- leaps highest --
I've heard the Hunter tell --
'Tis but the Ecstasy of death --
And then the Brake is still!

Frigid and sweet Her parting Face --
Frigid and fleet my Feet --
Alien and vain whatever Clime
Acrid whatever Fate.

There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes