The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (138 page)

Dickinson, Emily
1830–86

1
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

"Because I could not stop for Death" (
c.
1863)

2
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry.

"A Book (2)" (
c.
1873)

3
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.

"The Bustle in a House" (
c.
1866)

4
Heaven is what I cannot reach
The apple on the tree

"Forbidden Fruit" (
c.
1861)

5
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

"My life closed twice before its close"

6
They shut me up in prose—
As when a little girl
They put me in the closet—
Because they liked me "still".

"They shut me up in prose" (
c.
1862)

 
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Dickinson, John
1732–1808

1
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,—
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.

"The Liberty Song" (1768)

 
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Dickson, Paul
1939–

1
Rowe's Rule: the odds are five to six that the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.

in
Washingtonian
November 1978.

 
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Diderot, Denis
1713–84

1
And [with] the guts of the last priest
Let's shake the neck of the last king.

Dithrambe sur fête de rois
.

2
L'esprit de l'escalier.Staircase wit.
the witty riposte one thinks of only when one has left the drawing-room and is already on the way downstairs

Paradoxe sur le Comédien
(written 1773–8, published 1830)

 
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Dillon, Wentworth
, Lord Roscommon
c.
1633–1685

1
Choose an author as you choose a friend.

Essay on Translated Verse
(1684) l. 96

2
Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.

Essay on Translated Verse
(1684) l. 113

3
The multitude is always in the wrong.

Essay on Translated Verse
(1684) l. 183.

 
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1
Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.

What We Live By
(1932) pt. 2, ch. 12

 
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