John Donne

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

poet John Donne
#54 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).
    200 person liked.
    		56 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).
    179 person liked.
    		42 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).
    223 person liked.
    		49 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).
    108 person liked.
    		38 person did not like.
  • ''Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.''
    John Donne (c. 1572-1631), British divine, metaphysical poet. Eighty Sermons, sermon 7 (1640).
    113 person liked.
    		42 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.
    		8 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).
    11 person liked.
    		8 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

Holy Sonnet Xvi: Father

Father, part of his double interest
Unto thy kingdome, thy Sonne gives to mee,
His joynture in the knottie Trinitie
Hee keepes, and gives to me his deaths conquest.
This Lambe, whose death, with life the world hath blest,
Was from the worlds beginning slaine, and he
Hath made two Wills, which with the Legacie
Of his and thy kingdome, doe thy Sonnes invest.
Yet such are thy laws, that men argue yet

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