John Donne

(24 January 1572 - 31 March 1631 / London, England)

poet John Donne
#37 on top 500 poets

John Donne Quotes

  • ''To be no part of any body, is to be nothing.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. letter, Sept. 1608, to Sir Henry Goodyer. Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929).
    184 person liked.
    		49 person did not like.
  • ''When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. repr. In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929). Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, meditation 17 (1624).
    164 person liked.
    		37 person did not like.
  • ''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; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. repr. In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929). Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, meditation 17 (1624). "To be no part of any body, is to be nothing." (letter, Sept. 1608, to Sir Henry Goodyer, published in Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward, 1929).
    197 person liked.
    		42 person did not like.
  • ''But I do nothing upon myself, and yet am mine own executioner.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. repr. In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929). Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, meditation 12 (1624).
    96 person liked.
    		32 person did not like.
  • ''Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. Eighty Sermons, sermon 7 (1640).
    97 person liked.
    		36 person did not like.
  • ''Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. "Meditation 17," Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624).
    10 person liked.
    		9 person did not like.
  • ''When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. Meditation 17, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624).
    13 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • ''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 (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. Sermons, no. 35 (1625).
    12 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. repr. In Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (1929). An Anatomy of the World: First Anniversary (1611).
    10 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.

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Best Poem of John Donne

No Man Is An Island

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 friend's
Or of thine own were:
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.

Read the full of No Man Is An Island

The Ecstasy

Where, like a pillow on a bed
A pregnant bank swell'd up to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.
Our hands were firmly cemented
With a fast balm, which thence did spring;
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes upon one double string;
So to'intergraft our hands, as yet

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