Dickinson Quotes

“For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas.”
― Charles Simic

“I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow, probing, Eyes;
I wonder if It weighs like Mine,
Or has an Easier size.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Tell the truth, but tell it slant.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Read poetry. Especially poetry by Emily Dickinson. It might save you. Anne Sexton knows the mind, Walt Whitman knows grass, but Emily Dickinson knows everything.”
― Matt Haig, The Humans

“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 –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –”
― Emily Dickinson

“Your poetry--it doesn't deserve to be locked away, hidden from the rest of the world. And neither do you.”
― Tessa Emily Hall, Unwritten Melody

“Publication - is the Auction / Of the Mind of Man”
― Emily Dickinson

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain ;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Words, to me, are the same as an instrument is to a musician. I never know where this typewriter is going to take me until I begin. I never know what I'm feeling until I read over what I have written.”
― Tessa Emily Hall, Unwritten Melody

“I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love ; but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.”
― Emily Dickinson

“The past is such a curious creature,
To look her in the face
A transport may reward us,
Or a disgrace.

Unarmed if any meet her,
I charge them, fly !
Her rusty ammunition
Might yet reply !”
― Emily Dickinson

“Undue significance a starving man attaches to food
Far off ; he sighs, and therefore hopeless,
And therefore good.

Partaken, it relieves indeed, but proves us
That spices fly
In the receipt. It was the distance
Was savory.”
― Emily Dickinson

“A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
Who till they died, did not alive become —
Who had they lived, had died but when
They died, Vitality begun.”
― Emily Dickinson

“The reticent volcano keeps
His never slumbering plan ;
Confided are his projects pink
To no precarious man.

If nature will not tell the tale
Jehovah told to her,
Can human nature not survive
Without a listener?

Admonished by her buckled lips
Let every babbler be.
The only secret people keep
Is Immortality.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Forbidden fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks ;
How luscious lies the pea within
The pod that Duty locks !”
― Emily Dickinson

“My worthiness is all my doubt,
His merit all my fear,
Contrasting which, my qualities
Do lowlier appear ;

Lest I should insufficient prove
For his beloved need,
The chiefest apprehension
Within my loving creed.

So I, the undivine abode
Of his elect content,
Conform my soul as 't were a church
Unto her sacrament.”
― Emily Dickinson

“To hear an Oriole sing
May be a common thing —
Or only a divine.

It is not of the Bird
Who sings the same, unheard,
As unto Crowd —

The Fashion of the Ear
Attireth that it hear
In Dun, or fair —

So whether it be Rune,
Or whether it be none
Is of within.

The "Tune is in the Tree —"
The Skeptic — showeth me —
"No Sir! In Thee!”
― Emily Dickinson

“I lived on Dread —
To Those who know
The Stimulus there is
In Danger — Other impetus
Is numb — and Vitalless —

As 'twere a Spur — upon the Soul —
A Fear will urge it where
To go without the Sceptre's aid
Were Challenging Despair.”
― Emily Dickinson

“We play at paste,
Till qualified for pearl,
Then drop the paste,
And deem ourself a fool.
The shapes, though, were similar,
And our new hands
Learned gem-tactics
Practising sands.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Could mortal lip divine
The undeveloped freight
Of a delivered syllable,
'T would crumble with the weight.”
― Emily Dickinson

“I felt a clearing in my mind
As if my brain had split ;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thought before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
Like balls upon a floor.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Who never wanted, ― maddest joy
Remains to him unknown ;
The banquet of abstemiousness
Surpasses that of wine.

Within its hope, though yet ungrasped
Desire's perfect goal,
No nearer, lest reality
Should disenthrall thy soul.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Few get enough, ― enough is one ;
To that ethereal throng
Have not each one of us the right
To stealthily belong ?”
― Emily Dickinson

“To hang our head ostensibly,
And subsequent to find
That such was not the posture
Of our immortal mind,

Affords the sly presumption
That, in so dense a fuzz,
You, too, take cobweb attitudes
Upon a plane of gauze !”
― Emily Dickinson

“To my quick ear the Leaves — conferred —
The Bushes — they were Bells —
I could not find a Privacy
From Nature's sentinels —

In Cave if I presumed to hide
The Walls — begun to tell —
Creation seemed a mighty Crack —
To make me visible —”
― Emily Dickinson

“Immortal is an ample word
When what we need is by
But when it leaves us for a time
'Tis a necessity.

Of Heaven above the firmest proof
We fundamental know
Except for its marauding Hand
It had been Heaven below.”
― Emily Dickinson

“Hay algo que me gusta en la agonía,
y es que sé que es verdad; los hombres no simulan convulsiones,
no imitan el dolor.

Unos ojos se vidrian, y es la muerte.
Imposible de fingir
las gotas de sudor sobre la frente
que la inhábil angustia va ensartando.”
― Emily Dickinson

“A not admitting of the wound until it grew so wide that all my life had entered it.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete poems of Emily Dickinson