Donne, John quotes
1572-1632 British Metaphysical PoetDeath 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.
Donne, John
Death and Dying
Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.
Donne, John
Doubt
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.
Donne, John
Death and Dying
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.
Donne, John
Death and Dying
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
Donne, John
Cooperation
When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.
Donne, John
Death and Dying
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
Donne, John
Doctors
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.
Donne, John
Greatness
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.
Donne, John
Farewells
As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else.
Donne, John
Faith
Reason is our soul s left hand, faith her right, by these we reach divinity.
Donne, John
Faith
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.
Donne, John
Humankind
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
Donne, John
Self-sabotage
More than kisses letters mingle souls.
Donne, John
Letters
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Donne, John
Love
Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Donne, John
Infatuation
Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls. For, thus friends absent speak.
Donne, John
Letters
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
Donne, John
Love
Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
Donne, John
Lovers
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.
Donne, John
Love
We are all conceived in close prison; in our mothers wombs, we are close prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.
Donne, John
Prison
Pleasure is none, if not diversified.
Donne, John
Pleasure
Full nakedness! All my joys are due to thee, as souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, to taste whole joys.
Donne, John
Nudity
I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
Donne, John
Prayer
And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.
Donne, John
Philosophers and Philosophy
Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
Donne, John
Suffering
God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice.
Donne, John
Translation
Be your own palace, or the world is your jail.
Donne, John
Self-sufficiency
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.
Donne, John
Quarrels
Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me, why plowing, building, ruling and the rest, or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest, by cursed Cain s race invented be, and blest Seth vexed us with Astronomy.
Donne, John
Science and Scientists
Whenever any affliction assails me, I have the keys of my prison in mine own hand, and no remedy presents it selfe so soone to my heart, as mine own sword. Often meditation of this hath wonne me to a charitable interpretation of their action, who dy so: and provoked me a little to watch and exagitate their reasons, which pronounce so peremptory judgments upon them.
Donne, John
Suicide
To be no part of any body, is to be nothing.
Donne, John
Rejection
Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
Donne, John
Evil
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.
Donne, John
Atheism
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again years and years unto years, till we attain to write threescore: this is the second of our reign.
Donne, John
Anniversaries