John Donne Quotes

"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."

"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."

"Yet call not this long life; but think that IAm, by being dead, immortal; can ghosts die?"

"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."

"As soon as there was two there was pride"

"Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail."

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

"Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies."

"I have done one brave thing - Than all the Worthies did; And yet a braver thence doth spring - Which is to keep that hid"

"There is a hook in every benefit that sticks in his jaws that takes the benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will"

"Love's mysteries in souls do grow, But yet the body is his book"

"As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else."

"At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole."

"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."

"More than kisses, letters mingle souls."

"For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love."

"Twice or thrice had I loved thee, Before I knew thy face or name."

"No man ever saw God and lived. And yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him, I shall never die."

"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."

"I am two fools, I know, for loving, and for saying so in whining poetry."