John Donne Quotes

1572–1631, British Metaphysical Poet
quotes
35
topics
12
Origin
Topic
“Pleasure is none, if not diversified.”
Pleasure
“More than kisses letters mingle souls.”
VerifiedVerse Letter to Sir Henry Wotton, written before April 1598, line 1 · evidenceLetters
“Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.”
Evil
“Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.”
Love
“To be no part of any body, is to be nothing.”
Rejection
“Be your own palace, or the world is your jail.”
Self-sufficiency
“Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.”
Doubt
“I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.”
Doctors
“Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.”
Suffering
“But I do nothing upon my self, and yet I am mine own Executioner.”
VerifiedDevotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) · evidenceSelf-sabotage
“Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right, by these we reach divinity.”
Faith
“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls. For, thus friends absent speak.”
VerifiedVerse Letter to Sir Henry Wotton, written before April 1598, line 1 · evidenceLetters
“As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else.”
Faith
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
VerifiedMeditation 17. This was the source for the title of Hemingway's novel. Original text: "No man is an Iland intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the continent, a part of the maine; · evidenceCooperation
“Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”
Love
“When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.”
Death and Dying
“Full nakedness! All my joys are due to thee, as souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, to taste whole joys.”
Nudity
“God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice.”
Translation
“Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”
Infatuation
“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.”
Farewells
“Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?”
Lovers
“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.”
Anniversaries
“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.”
Death and Dying
“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.”
VerifiedAn Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary (1611), l. 205 · evidencePhilosophers and Philosophy
“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.”
Atheism
“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.”
Death and Dying
“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.”
Love
“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.”
Science and Scientists
“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.”
Humankind
“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.”
VerifiedNo. 80, preached at the funeral of Sir William Cokayne, 12 December 1626 · evidencePrayer