No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
Source: Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII (1624)
Author
English · 1572-1631 · 10 quotes
English · 1572–1631
10 quotes in our collection
John Donne (1572-1631) was an English poet, preacher, and cleric whose work stands at the center of metaphysical poetry. His major writings include Songs and Sonnets, the Holy Sonnets, The Flea, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Death Be Not Proud, and the prose Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. Donne matters because he fused intellect, sensuality, theology, wit, and emotional intensity in startling poetic forms. His poems turn argument into drama, using elaborate conceits to explore love, mortality, sin, and salvation. After a youthful career marked by ambition and difficult love, he became Dean of St Paul's Cathedral and one of the most famous preachers in England. Donne's quotes endure because they make thought passionate and feeling intellectually exact, especially when confronting death, union, and the soul. His voice still challenges readers to feel thought as an urgent spiritual event.
Collected Quotes
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.
Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
All mankind is of one author, and is one volume.
Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it.