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No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were: any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
-John Donne
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Atheism
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He must pull out his own eyes, and see no creature, before he can say, he sees no God; He must be no man, and quench his reasonable soul, before he can say to himself, there is no God.
-John Donne
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Death
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Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. For, those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow. Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
-John Donne
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I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him merely seize me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwreck, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotency might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.
-John Donne
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As virtuous men pass mildly away, and whisper to their souls to go, whilst some of their sad friends do say, the breath goes now, and some say no.
-John Donne
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When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.
-John Donne
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Doctors
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I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
-John Donne
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Doubt
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Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.
-John Donne
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Evil
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Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
-John Donne
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Faith
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As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else.
-John Donne
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Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right, by these we reach divinity.
-John Donne
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Fight, Fighting
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Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because they contend not about matter of fact, nor can determine their controversies by any certain witnesses, nor judges. But as long as they go towards peace, that is Truth, it is no matter which way.
-John Donne
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Greatness & Great Things
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At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole.
-John Donne
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Help
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No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
-John Donne
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Humanity
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Man is not only a contributory creature, but a total creature; he does not only make one, but he is all; he is not a piece of the world, but the world itself; and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world.
-John Donne
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Independence
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Be your own palace, or the world is your jail.
-John Donne
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Infatuation
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Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
-John Donne
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Last Words
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When I died last, and, Dear, I die as often as from thee I go though it be but an hour ago and lovers hours be full eternity.
-John Donne
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Letters (writing)
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More than kisses letters mingle souls.
-John Donne
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Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls. For, thus friends absent speak.
-John Donne
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Love
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Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
-John Donne
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Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
-John Donne
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Love was as subtly caught, as a disease; But being got it is a treasure sweet, which to defend is harder than to get: And ought not be profaned on either part, for though 'Tis got by chance, 'Tis kept by art.
-John Donne
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Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
-John Donne
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Mistakes
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But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
-John Donne
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Books by and about John Donne