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John Donne
161 quotes
“Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; For, thus friends absent speak.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1598 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Verse Letter to Sir Henry Wotton, written before April 1598, line 1
“And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy paced) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy gaol.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I sing the progress of a deathless soul.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1601 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Progress of the Soul (1601), stanza 1
“Great Destiny, the commissary of God.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1601 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Progress of the Soul (1601), stanza 4
“So, of a lone unhaunted place possess’d, Did this soul’s second inn, built by the guest, This living buried man, this quiet mandrake, rest.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1601 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Progress of the Soul (1601), stanza 16
“Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant, The only harmless great thing.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1601 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Progress of the Soul (1601), stanza 39
“Friends are ourselves.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1603 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Ben Johnson (6 Jan. 1603)
“Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb, Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1609 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: La Corona (1609), 3. Nativity
“Clothed in her virgin white integrity.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1610 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Funeral Elegy (1610)
“And new philosophy calls all in doubt, The element of fire is quite put out; The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man's wit, Can well direct him where to look for it. And freely men confess that this world's spent, When in the planets, and the firmament They seek so many new; then see that this Is crumbled out again to his atomies. 'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; All just supply, and all relation: Prince, subject, Father, Son, are things forgot.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1611 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary (1611), l. 205
“She, she is dead; she’s dead; when thou know’st this, Thou know’st how dry a cinder this world is.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no health; physicians say, that we At best enjoy but a neutrality.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For good or evil must in our actions meet; Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Think then, my soul, that death is but a groom, Which brings a taper to the outward room.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1612 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Of the Progress of the Soul: The Second Anniversary (1612), l. 85
“Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say, her body thought.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We understood Her by her sight; her pure, and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say, her body thought.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Dr. John Donne
“Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is; All the air is thy diocese.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1613 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Epithalamion...on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine being Married on St. Valentine’s Day (1613)
“The lyric lark, and the grave whispering dove, The sparrow that neglects his life for love, The household bird with the red stomacher.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The maskers come late, and I think will stay, Like fairies, till the cock crow them away.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As Thou Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now; Thou lovest not, till from loving more Thou free My soul; Who ever gives, takes liberty; Oh, if Thou carest not whom I love, Alas! Thou lovest not me.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1619 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s last going into Germany (1619), stanza 3
“Seal then this bill of my divorce to all.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To see God only, I go out of sight; And to escape stormy days, I choose An everlasting night.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin, and made my sin their door? Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score? When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1623 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Hymn to God the Father (1623), stanzas 1 and 2
“Since I am coming to that holy room, Where, with thy choir of saints forevermore, I shall be made thy music; as I come I tune the instrument here at the door, And what I must do then, think here before.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1623 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness (1623), stanza 1
“Whilst my physicians by their love are grown Cosmographers, and their map, who lie Flat on this bed.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From this I testify her holy cheerfulness, and religious alacrity, (one of the best evidences of a good conscience), that as she came to this place, God’s house of Prayer...she ever hastened her family, and her company hither, with that cheerful provocation, For God’s sake let’s go, For God’s sake let’s be there at the Confession.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1627 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Sermon of Commemoration of the Lady Danvers (1627)
“Sleep is pain's easiest salve, and doth fulfill All offices of death, except to kill.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To roam Giddily and be everywhere, but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Virtue has some perverseness, for she will Neither believe her good, nor others' ill.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late school-boys and sour 'prentices, Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices; Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She is all states, and all princes, I, Nothing else is. Princes do but play us; compared to this, All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the Devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And swear No where Lives a woman true and fair. If thou find'st one, let me know, Such a pilgrimage were sweet; Yet do not, I would not go, Though at next door we might meet, Though she were true, when you met her, And last, till you write your letter, Yet she Will be False, ere I come, to two, or three.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have done one braver thing Than all the Worthies did; And yet a braver thence doth spring, Which is to keep that hid.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But he who loveliness within Hath found, all outward loathes, For he who color loves, and skin, Loves but their oldest clothes.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And dare love that, and say so too, And forget the He and She.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love; Or chide my palsy, or my gout; My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout; With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve; Take you a course, get you a place, Observe his Honour, or his Grace; Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face Contemplate ; what you will, approve, So you will let me love.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alas! alas! who's injured by my love? What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd? Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground? When did my colds a forward spring remove? When did the heats which my veins fill Add one more to the plaguy bill? Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move, Though she and I do love.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As well a well-wrought urn becomes The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so In whining poetry.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who are a little wise, the best fools be.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Dr. John Donne
“Sweetest love, I do not go, For weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show A fitter love for me; But since that I Must die at last, 'tis best, To use my self in jest Thus by feigned deaths to die.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesternight the sun went hence, And yet is here today.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But think that we Are but turned aside to sleep.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I died last, and dear, I die As often as from thee I go.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh do not die, for I shall hate All women so, when thou art gone.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh wrangling schools, that search what fire Shall burn this world, had none the wit Unto this knowledge to aspire, That this her fever might be it?”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For I had rather owner be Of thee one hour, than all else ever.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source