Emily Dickinson

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

— Emily Dickinson

Anger as soon as fed is dead; 'Tis starving makes it fat.

— Emily Dickinson

Beauty is not caused. It is.

— Emily Dickinson

The abdication of belief makes the behavior small -- better an ignis fatuus than no illume at all.

— Emily Dickinson

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

— Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.

— Emily Dickinson

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

Death is a Dialogue between, the Spirit and the Dust.

— Emily Dickinson

Dying is a wild night and a new road.

— Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.

— Emily Dickinson

Let us go in; the fog is rising.

— Emily Dickinson

Assent -- and you are sane -- , demur -- you're straightway dangerous -- , and handled with a Chain -- .

— Emily Dickinson

Surgeons must be very careful. When they take the knife!, underneath their fine incisions, stirs the Culprit -- Life!

— Emily Dickinson

Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir.

— Emily Dickinson

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

— Emily Dickinson

The fog is rising.

— Emily Dickinson

Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.

— Emily Dickinson

Heaven is so far of the mind that were the mind dissolved -- the site of it by architect could not again be proved.

— Emily Dickinson

Drab Habitation of Whom? Tabernacle or Tomb -- or Dome of Worm -- or Porch of Gnome -- or some Elf's Catacomb?

— Emily Dickinson

Where thou art, that is home.

— Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul -- and sings the tunes without the words -- and never stops at all.

— Emily Dickinson

His Labor is a Chant -- his Idleness -- a Tune -- oh, for a Bee's experience of Clovers, and of Noon!

— Emily Dickinson

Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy! If I should fail, what poverty! And yet, as poor as I Have ventured all upon a throw; Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so this side the victory!

— Emily Dickinson

I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.

— Emily Dickinson

Luck is not chance, it is toil. Fortune is expensive smile is earned.

— Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense -- to a discerning Eye -- much Sense -- the starkest Madness --

— Emily Dickinson

The Brain is wider than the sky-.

— Emily Dickinson

Nature, like us is sometimes caught without her diadem.

— Emily Dickinson

Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.

— Emily Dickinson

After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.

— Emily Dickinson

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

— Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility.

— Emily Dickinson

We never know how high we are till we are called to rise; and then, if we are true to plan, our stature's touch the skies.

— Emily Dickinson

To live is so starling it leaves little time for anything else.

— Emily Dickinson

Faith is a fine invention when Gentleman can see -- but microscopes are prudent in an emergency

— Emily Dickinson

His mind of man, a secret makes I meet him with a start he carries a circumference in which I have no part.

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

I like a look of Agony, because I know it's true -- men do not sham Convulsion, nor simulate, a Throe --

— Emily Dickinson

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

— Emily Dickinson

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

— Emily Dickinson

A word is dead when it is said. Some say. I say it just, begins to live that day.

— 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

. . . how still the Landscape stands! How nonchalant the Hedge! As if the "Resurrection" Were nothing very strange!

— Emily Dickinson

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

A Drunkard cannot meet a Cork Without a Revery--And so encountering a Fly This January Day Jamaicas of Remembrance stir That send me reeling in--This moderate drinker of Delight Does not deserve the spring--

— Emily Dickinson

A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period--When March is scarcely here A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science cannot overtake But Human Nature feels.

— Emily Dickinson

As imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away--Too imperceptible at last To seem like Perfidy--

— Emily Dickinson

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

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

— Emily Dickinson

The Soul unto itself / Is an imperial friend— / Or the most agonizing Spy— / An Enemy—could send

— Emily Dickinson

A single Screw of Flesh / Is all that pins the Soul

— Emily Dickinson

I reason, Earth is short— / And Anguish— absolute— / And many hurt, / But, what of that?

— Emily Dickinson

Not with a Club, the Heart is broken / Nor with a Stone— / A Whip so small you could not see it / I’ve known / To lash the Magic Creature / Till it fell.

— Emily Dickinson

A Deed knocks first at Thought / And then—it knocks at Will— / That is the manufacturing spot.

— Emily Dickinson

I tasted—careless—then— / I did not know the Wine / Came once a World—Did you?

— Emily Dickinson

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

— Emily Dickinson

A great hope fell / You heard no noise / The Ruin was within.

— Emily Dickinson

A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King, / But God be with the Clown.

— Emily Dickinson