John Donne was a British poet, essayist, and cleric in the Church of England. He is considered to be the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires, and sermons.
What is the most famous quote by John Donne ?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.
— John Donne
What can you learn from John Donne (Life Lessons)
- John Donne's poetry often focuses on the importance of cherishing moments, as life is short and unpredictable. He encourages readers to live with passion and purpose, and to appreciate the beauty of life and love.
- Donne's works also emphasize the power of faith and the need to remain humble and grateful in the face of life's difficulties. He reminds us to be open to the possibilities of life and to embrace change as a part of growth.
- Finally, Donne's poetry encourages us to be mindful of our actions and to strive for a life of integrity and kindness. He reminds us that our words and deeds have far-reaching consequences, and that we should strive to make the world a better place.
The most unconventional John Donne quotes that will activate your inner potential
Following is a list of the best John Donne quotes, including various John Donne inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by John Donne.
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
What gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God?
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee
When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.
Full nakedness! All my joys are due to thee, as souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, to taste whole joys.
Mystical quotes by John Donne
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
True joy is the earnest which we have of heaven, it is the treasure of the soul, and therefore should be laid in a safe place, and nothing in this world is safe to place it in.
Love's mysteries in souls do grow, But yet the body is his book.
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
Come live with me, and be my love,And we will some new pleasures proveOf golden sands, and crystal brooks,With silken lines, and silver hooks.
O Lord, never suffer us to think that we can stand by ourselves, and not need thee.
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.
The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can.
Quotations by John Donne that are passionate and devotional
Sleep with clean hands, either kept clean all day by integrity or washed clean at night by repentance.
To roam Giddily, and be everywhere but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.
As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery.
For I am every dead thing In whom love wrought new alchemy For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness He ruined me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death; things which are not.
Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we lov'd?
At the round earth's imagined corners, blow your trumpets, angels.
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.
In the first minute that my soul is infused, the Image of God is imprinted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me.
Now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons.
As soon as there was two there was pride.
So, so, break off this last lamenting kiss, Which sucks two souls, and vapors both away.
The Phoenix riddle hath more wit By us, we two being one, are it. So to one neutral thing both sexes fit, We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love.
Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant;the only harmless great thing.
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
Our two souls therefore which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat.
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us often.
Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing.
To be no part of any body, is to be nothing.
And now good morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear; For love, all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room, an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown, Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there.
Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631 He was the Word that spake it; He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it I do believe, and take it.
God made sun and moon to distinguish the seasons, and day and night; and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons. But God hath made no decrees to distinguish the seasons of His mercies. In Paradise the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in heaven it is always autumn. His mercies are ever in their maturity.
Be your own palace, or the world is your jail.
God himself took a day to rest in, and a good man's grave is his Sabbath.
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.
Solitude is a torment which is not threatened in hell itself.
At the round earth's imagined corners, blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls **** All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, Despair, law, chance, hath slain.
Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.
As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else.
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.
No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace,As I have seen in one autumnal face.