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John Donne
161 quotes
“I will not look upon the quickening sun, But straight her beauty to my sense shall run; The air shall note her soft, the fire, most pure; Waters suggest her clear, and the earth sure. Time shall not lose our passages.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The heavens rejoice in motion, why should I Abjure my so much loved variety.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By our first strange and fatal interview, By all desires which thereof did ensue.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nurse, O! my love is slain; I saw him go O'er the white Alps alone; I saw him, I, Assail'd, fight, taken, stabb'd, bleed, fall, and die.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who ever loves, if he do not propose The right true end of love, he's one that goes To sea for nothing but to make him sick.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The straight Hellespont between The Sestos and Abydos of her breasts Not of two lovers, but two loves the nests.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy; Until I labour, I in labour lie. The foe ofttimes, having the foe in sight, Is tired with standing, though he never fight. Off with that girdle, like heaven’s zone glittering, But a far fairer world encompassing. Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear, That th’ eyes of busy fools may be stopp’d there. Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime Tells me from you that now it is bed-time.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 19, To His Mistress Going to Bed, line 1. Not in Poems (1633) but in The Harmony of the Muses (1654)
“We easily know By this these angels from an evil sprite, They set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Licence my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below. O, my America, my Newfoundland My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd, My mine of precious stones, my empery; How am I blest in thus discovering thee! To enter in these bonds, is to be free; Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee, As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, To taste whole joys.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a little world made cunningly Of elements, and an angelic sprite.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, Despair, law, chance, hath slain.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell; And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What if this present were the world's last night?”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take me to you, imprison me, for I Except you enthral me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Show me, dear Christ, Thy spouse, so bright and clear.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shall I leave all this constant company, And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee?”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For if one eat my meat, though it be known The meat was mine, th'excrement is his own.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kind pity chokes my spleen.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1598 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 3 (c. 1598)
“Though Truth and Falsehood be Near twins, yet Truth a little elder is.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On a huge hill, Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goe; And what the hills suddenness resists, winne so; Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If in his study he hath so much care To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thy flattering picture, Phryne, is like thee, Only in this, that you both painted be.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Variable, and therefore miserable condition of man; this minute I was well, and am ill, this minute.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man, who is the noblest part of the earth, melts so away as if he were a statue, not of earth, but of snow.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is too little to call man a little world, except God, man is a diminutive to nothing. Man consists of more pieces, more parts, than the world; than the world doth, nay, than the world is.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And then as the other world produces serpents, and vipers, malignant, and venomous creatures, and worms, and caterpillars, that endeavour to devour that world produces them, and monsters compiled and complicated of diverse parents, and kinds, so this world, ourselves produces all these in us, in producing diseases and sicknesses of all those sorts; venomous and infectious diseases, feeding and consuming diseases...”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I observe the physician, with the same diligence, as he the disease; I see he fears, and I fear with him...”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man that is not afraid of a Lion is afraid of a Cat; not afraid of starving, and yet is afraid of some joint of meat at the table, presented to feed him; not afraid of the sound of drums, and trumpets, and shot, and those, which they seek to drown, the last cries of men, and is afraid of some particular harmonious instrument; so much afraid, as that with any of these the enemy might drive this man, otherwise valiant enough, out of the field.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know not what fear is, nor I know not what it is that I fear now; I fear not the hastening of my death, and yet I do fear the increase of the disease... my weakness is from nature, who hath but her measure, my strength is from God, who possesses and distributes infinitely.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Age is a sickness, and Youth is an ambush.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let not one bring Learning, another Diligence, another Religion, but every one bring all.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But I do nothing upon my self, and yet I am mine own Executioner.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He drinks misery, and he tastes happiness; he mows misery, and he gleaned happiness; he journeys in misery, he does but walked in happiness.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How deep do we dig, and for how coarse gold?”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 friends 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.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meditation 17. This was the source for the title of Hemingway's novel. Original text: "No man is an Iland intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the S…
“My God, my God, thou art a direct God, may I not say a literal God, a God that wouldst be understood literally and according to the plain sense of all that thou sayest? But thou art also...a figurative, a metaphorical God too.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God?”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1622 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 76, preached to the Earl of Carlisle, c. autumn 1622
“When God's hand is bent to strike, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1622 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 76, preached at Sion to The Earl of Carlisle and company (c. 1622)
“Now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite his mercies, and all times are his seasons.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1625 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 3, preached on Christmas Day 1625
“A day that hath no pridie, nor postridie, yesterday doth not usher it in, nor tomorrow shall not drive it out. Methusalem, with all his hundreds of years, was but a mushroom of a night’s growth, to this day, And all the four Monarchies, with all their thousands of years, and all the powerful Kings and all the beautiful Queens of this world, were but as a bed of flowers, some gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight, All in one Morning, in respect of this Day.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1626 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 73, preached at Whitehall, 18 April 1626
“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.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1626 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 80, preached at the funeral of Sir William Cokayne, 12 December 1626
“A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an anything, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer. So certainly is there nothing, nothing in spiritual things, perfect in this world.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1626 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 80, preached at the funeral of Sir William Cokayne, 12 December 1626
“There is nothing that God hath established in a constant course of nature, and which therefore is done every day, but would seem a Miracle, and exercise our admiration, if it were done but once.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1627 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 22, preached on Easter Day 1627