Quotes by Emily Dickinson
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Fame is a fickle food Upon a shifting plate, Whose table once a Guest, but not The second time, is set. Whose crumbs the crows inspect, And with ironic caw Flap past it to the Farmer's corn; Men eat of it and die.

My friends are my estate. Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them!

Our journey had advanced; Our feet were almost come To that odd fork in Being's road, Eternity by term.

The abdication of Belief
Makes the Behavior small-
Better an ignis fatuus
Than no illume at all.

Love can do all but raise the Dead.

I held a jewel in my fingers And went to sleep. The day was warm, and winds were prosy; I said: 'T will keep. I woke and chid my honest fingers,-- The gem was gone; And now an amethyst remembrance Is all I own.

To possess is past the instant; we achieve the joy, immortality contented, were anomaly.

To fight aloud is very brave, but gallanter, I know, who charge within the bosom, the Cavalry of Woe.

I tasted -- careless -- then -
I did not know the Wine
Came once a World -- Did you?
Oh, had you told me so -
This Thirst would blister -- easier -- now.

You are nipping in the bud fancies which I let blossom. The shore is safer, but I love to buffet the sea -- I can count the bitter wrecks here in these pleasant waters, and hear the murmuring winds, but oh, I love the danger!

You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself.

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind- As if my Brain had split- I tried to match it- Seam by Seam- But could not make it fit.

Fearless -- the cobweb swings from the ceiling --
Indolent Housewife -- in Daisies -- lain!

The distance that the dead have gone Does not at first appear- Their coming back seems possible For many an ardent year.

It is essential to the sanity of mankind that each one should think the other crazy -- a condition with which the cynicism of human nature so cordially complies, one could wish it were a concurrence upon a subject more noble.

Each that we lose takes a part of us; A crescent still abides, Which like the moon, some turbid night, Is summoned by the tides.

'Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand When we with Daisies lie- That Commerce will continue- And Trades as briskly fly.

The dandelion's pallid tube
Astonishes the grass,
And winter instantly becomes
An infinite alas.

Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems.

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

A Dominie in Gray --
Put gently up the evening Bars --
And led the flock away.

I lost a world the other day. Has anybody found? You'll know it by the rows of stars around it's forehead bound. A rich man might not notice it; yet to my frugal eye of more esteem than ducats. Oh! Find it, sir, for me!

You cannot fold a flood and put it in a drawer, because the winds would find it out and tell your cedar floor.

Heart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you're lagging, I may remember him!

Heart, we will forget him, You and I, tonight! You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.

You remember my ideal cat has always a huge rat in its mouth, just going out of sight -- though going out of sight in itself has a peculiar pleasure.

When a Lover is a Beggar Abject is his Knee. When a Lover is an Owner Different is he.

Banish Air from Air
Divide Light if you dare.

Prayer is the little implement

Through which Men reach

Where Presence -- is denied them.

They fling their Speech

By means of it -- in God's Ear -

If then He hear -

This sums the Apparatus

Comprised in Prayer.

Opinion is a fitting thing but truth outlasts the sun -- if then we cannot own them both, possess the oldest one.

To see her is a picture- To hear her is a tune- To know her an Intemperance As innocent as June- To know her not-Affliction- To own her for a Friend A warmth as near as if the the Sun Were shining in your Hand.

My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun -- In Corners -- till a Day The Owner passed -- identified -- And carried Me away .

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.

PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there's a word to lift your hat to... to find that phosphorescence, that light within, that's the genius behind poetry.

AMPLE make this bed. Make this bed with awe; In it wait till judgment break Excellent and fair. Be its mattress straight, Be its pillow round; Let no sunrise' yellow noise Interrupt this ground.

Faith is a fine invention When gentlemen can see, But microscopes are prudent In an emergency.

Afraid? Of whom am I afraid? Not death. For who is he?

How happy is the little stone That rambles in the road alone, And doesn't care about careers, And exigencies never fears; Whose coat of elemental brown A passing universe put on; And independent as the sun, Associates or glows alone, Fulfilling absolute decree In casual simplicity.

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.

Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode until we drive away.

No Life can pompless pass away -
The lowliest career
To the same Pageant wends its way
As that exalted here .

Other Courtesies have been -
Other Courtesy may be -
We commend ourselves to thee
Paragon of Chivalry.

Renunciation-is a piercing Virtue-The letting go A Presence-for an Expectation.

I like a look of agony, because I know it's true.

We must be careful what we say. No bird resumes its egg.

If I shouldn't be alive
When the Robins come,
Give the one in Red Cravat,
A Memorial crumb.

Expectation is contentment -- Gain satiety.

I fear a Man of frugal speech -- I fear a Silent Man -- Haranguer -- I can overtake -- Or Babbler -- entertain -- But He who weigheth -- While the Rest -- Expend their furthest pound -- Of this Man -- I am wary -- I fear that He is Grand .

That no Flake of snow fall on you or them -- is a wish that would be a Prayer, were Emily not a Pagan.

I'll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, That must have been the sun!

The older I grow the more do I love spring and spring flowers. Is it so with you?

There is always one thing to be grateful for -- that one is one's self and not somebody else.

Had we less to say to those we love, perhaps we should say it oftener.

I miss the grasshoppers much, but suppose it is all for the best. I should become too much attached to a trotting world.

Vinnie rocks her Garden and moans that God won't help her. I suppose he is too busy getting angry with the Wicked every day.

Volcanoes be in Sicily
And South America
I judge from my Geography --
Volcanoes nearer here
A lava step at any time
Am I inclined to climb --
A Crater I may contemplate
Vesuvius at Home.

That love is all there is, Is all we know of love.

'Arcturus' is his other name- I'd rather call him 'Star.' It's very mean of Science To go and interfere!

How very sad it is to have a confiding nature, one's hopes and feelings are quite at the mercy of all who come along; and how very desirable to be a stolid individual, whose hopes and aspirations are safe in one's waistcoat pocket, and that a pocket indeed, and one not to be picked!

I HIDE myself within my flower That wearing on your breast, You, unsuspecting, wear me too -- And angels know the rest. I hide myself within my flower, That, fading from your vase, You, unsuspecting, feel for me Almost a loneliness.

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed.

Initial of Creation, and The Exponent of Earth.

You left me boundaries of pain Capacious as the sea, Between eternity and time, Your consciousness and me.

I ... am small, like the wren, and my hair is bold like the chestnut burr; and my eyes like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves.

To multiply the harbors does not reduce the sea.

The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld,--
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.
But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,--
Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.

Of Consciousness, her awful Mate. The Soul cannot be rid -- as easy the secreting her behind the Eyes of God.

The Morning after Woe- Tis frequently the Way- Surpasses all that rose before- For utter Jubilee.

Memory is a strange Bell--Jubilee, and Knell.

Forever is composed of Nows
'Tis not a different time
Except for Infiniteness
And Latitude of Home.

We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble.

How lucious lies the pea within the pod.

I can wade Grief -- Whole Pools of it -- I'm used to that -- But the least push of Joy Breaks up my feet -- And I tip -- drunken -- Let no Pebble -- smile -- 'Twas the New Liquor -- That was all!

My friends are my estate. Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them. They tell me those who were poor early have different views of gold. I don't know how that is. God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him.

A charm invests a face Imperfectly beheld,-- The lady dare not lift her veil For fear it be dispelled. But peers beyond her mesh, And wishes, and denies,-- Lest interview annul a want That image satisfies.

I had no monarch in my life, and cannot rule myself; and when I try to organize, my little force explodes and leaves me bare and charred.

Mine Enemy is growing old -- I have at last Revenge -- The Palate of the Hate departs -- If any would avenge Let him be quick -- the Viand flits -- It is a faded Meat -- Anger as soon as fed is dead -- 'Tis starving makes it fat.

Common sense is almost as omniscient as God.

We trust in plumed procession
For such the angels go
Rank after rank, with even feet And uniforms of snow.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, .

I hope your rambles have been sweet, and your reveries spacious.

I stepped from plank to plank So slow and cautiously; The stars about my head I felt, About my feet the sea. I knew not but the next Would be my final inch,-- This gave me that precarious gait Some call experience.

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 moor -- Tonight -- In thee!

Publication -- is the auction of the mind.

Unto a broken heart No other one may go Without the high prerogative Itself hath suffered too.

The Pleading of the Summer -- That other Prank -- of Snow -- That Cushions Mystery with Tulle, For fear the Squirrels -- know.

Safe Despair it is that raves- Agony is frugal. Puts itself severe away For its own perusal.

Portraits are to daily faces As an evening west To a fine, pedantic sunshine In a satin vest.

If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things.

Eternity' is there, 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.

What will the solemn Hemlock- What will the Oak tree say?

An ear can break a human heart As quickly as a spear, We wish the ear had not a heart So dangerously near.