John Donne Quotes

Christ beats his drum, but he does not press men; Christ is served with voluntaries. ~ John Donne

But, O alas! so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear? ~ John Donne

I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease. ~ John Donne

Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet. ~ John Donne

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ~ John Donne

Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you. ~ John Donne

That soul that can reflect upon itself, consider itself, is more than so. ~ John Donne

A bride, before a "Good-night" could be said,
Should vanish from her clothes into her bed,
As souls from bodies steal, and are not spied.
But now she's laid; what though she be?
Yet there are more delays, for where is he?
He comes and passeth through sphere after sphere;
First her sheets, then her arms, then anywhere.
Let not this day, then, but this night be thine;
Thy day was but the eve to this, O Valentine. ~ John Donne

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind. ~ John Donne

A man that is not afraid of a Lion is afraid of a Cat . ~ John Donne

TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph. ~ John Donne

No man is an island, said John Donne, but I humbly dare to add: No man or woman is an island, but every one of us is a peninsula, half attached to the mainland, half facing the ocean – one half connected to family and friends and culture and tradition and country and nation and sex and language and many other things, and the other half wanting to be left alone to face the ocean.

I think we ought to be allowed to remain peninsulas. Every social and political system that turns each of us into a Donnean island and the rest of humankind into an enemy or a rival is a monster. But at the same time every social and political and ideological system that wants to turn each of us into no more than a molecule of the mainland is also a monstrosity. The condition of peninsula is the proper human condition. That's what we are and that's what we deserve to remain. ~ Amos Oz

I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him merely seize me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwreck, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotency might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming. ~ John Donne

Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run? ~ John Donne

Our faults are not seen, But past us; neither felt, but only in The punishment. ~ John Donne

Eliot's understanding of poetic epistemology is a version of Bradley's theory, outlined in our second chapter, that knowing involves immediate, relational, and transcendent stages or levels. The poetic mind, like the ordinary mind, has at least two types of experience: The first consists largely of feeling (falling in love, smelling the cooking, hearing the noise of the typewriter), the second largely of thought (reading Spinoza). The first type of experience is sensuous, and it is also to a great extent monistic or immediate, for it does not require mediation through the mind; it exists before intellectual analysis, before the falling apart of experience into experiencer and experienced. The second type of experience, in contrast, is intellectual (to be known at all, it must be mediated through the mind) and sharply dualistic, in that it involves a breaking down of experience into subject and object. In the mind of the ordinary person, these two types of experience are and remain disparate. In the mind of the poet, these disparate experiences are somehow transcended and amalgamated into a new whole, a whole beyond and yet including subject and object, mind and matter. Eliot illustrates his explanation of poetic epistemology by saying that John Donne did not simply feel his feelings and think his thoughts; he felt his thoughts and thought his feelings. He was able to "feel his thought as immediately as the odour of a rose." Immediately" in this famous simile is a technical te ~ Jewel Spears Brooker

I am two fools, I know, for loving, and for saying so in whining poetry. ~ John Donne

If I lose at play, I blaspheme; if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So, God is always the loser. ~ John Donne

To a large degree, since the beginning of time, charisma or the lack of it has impacted upon those in quest of acclaim. As media expands, this has become ever more vital. Thus, demeanor if unappealing, can defeat one's likelihood of success, causing the death of prospects whilst they are still embryonic. ~ John Donne

Men are sponges, which, to pour out, receive;
Who know false play, rather than lose, deceive.
For in best understandings sin began,
Angels sinn'd first, then devils, and then man.
Only perchance beasts sin not ; wretched we
Are beasts in all but white integrity. ~ John Donne

Poetry is a counterfeit creation, and makes things that are not, as though they were ~ John Donne

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie Flat on this bed. ~ John Donne

At one blood labors to beget,
Spirits as like as it can,
Because such figures need to knit,
that subtle knot which makes us man. ~ John Donne

When I died last, and, Dear, I die
As often as from thee I go
Though it be but an hour ago,
And lovers' hours be full eternity. ~ John Donne

And swear No where Lives a woman true, and fair. ~ John Donne

I was clever enough to know that John Donne was offering something that was awfully enjoyable. I just wasn't clever enough to actually enjoy it. ~ Wallace Shawn

And what is so intricate, so entangling as death? Who ever got out of a winding sheet? ~ John Donne

That thou remember them, some claim as debt; I think it mercy, if thou wilt forget. ~ John Donne

As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there. ~ John Donne

Send me nor this, nor that, to increase my store,
But swear thou think'st I love thee, and no more. ~ John Donne

That which attempts to elevate the ugly to the level of beauty becomes neither; but an obscenity. ~ John Donne

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

But think that we Are but turned aside to sleep. ~ John Donne

I am the dust and the ashes of the temple of the Holy Ghost, and what marble is so precious? But I am more than dust and ashes: I am my best part, I am my soul. ~ John Donne

It is too little to call man a little world; Except God, man is a diminutive to nothing. ~ John Donne

I long to talk with some old lover's ghost, Who died before the god of love was born. ~ John Donne

Annunciation

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
Thou hast light in dark, and shuts in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb. ~ John Donne

We say that the world is made of sea and land, as though they were equal; but we know that there is more sea in the Western than in the Eastern hemisphere. We say that the firmament is full of stars, as though it were equally full; but we know that there are more stars under the Northern than the Southern pole. We say the element of man are misery and happiness, as though he had an equal proportion of both, and the days of man vicissitudinary, as though he had as many good days as ill, and that he lived under a perpetual equinoctial, night and day equal, good and ill fortune in the same measure. But it is far from that; he drinks in misery, and he tastes happiness; he journeys in misery, he does but walk in happiness: and, which is worstn his misery is positive and dogmatical, his happiness is but disputable and problematical: all men call misery misery, but happiness changes the name by the taste of man. ~ John Donne

I count all that part of my life lost which I spent not in communion with God, or in doing good. ~ John Donne

Pleasure is none, if not diversified. ~ John Donne

Believing then … that human life is actually worth living, one can combat one's natural pessimism by stoicism and the refusal of illusion, while embellishing the scene with any one of the following. There are the beauties of science and the extraordinary marvels of nature. There is the consolation and irony of philosophy. There are the infinite splendors of literature and poetry, not excluding the liturgical and devotional aspects of these, such as those found in John Donne or George Herbert. There is the grand resource of art and music and architecture, again not excluding those elements that aspire to the sublime. In all of these pursuits, any one of them enough to absorb a lifetime, there may be found a sense of awe and magnificence that does not depend at all on any invocation of the supernatural. Indeed, nobody armed by art and culture and literature and philosophy is likely to be anything but bored and sickened by ghost stories, UFO tales, spiritualist experiences, or babblings from the beyond. ~ Christopher Hitchens

Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time, but time is as a short parenthesis in a long period. ~ John Donne

This is joy's bonfire, then, where love's strong arts
Make of so noble individual parts
One fire of four inflaming eyes, and of two loving hearts. ~ John Donne

Be more than man, or thou'rt less than an ant. ~ John Donne

To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend, All is the purlieu of the god of love. ~ John Donne

Chastity is not chastity in an old man, but a disability to be unchaste. ~ John Donne

If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul the fixt foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the other do. ~ John Donne

For I am every dead thing In whom love wrought new alchemy For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness He ruined me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death; things which are not. ~ John Donne

Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
Nor any place be empty quite;
Therefore I think my breast hath all
Those pieces still, though they be not unite;
And now, as broken glasses show
A hundred lesser faces, so
My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
But after one such love, can love no more. ~ John Donne

To an incompetent judge I must not lie, but I may be silent; to a competent I must answer. ~ John Donne

Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. ~ John Donne

A toy boat, a toy boat, a toy boat,' she repeated, thus enforcing upon herself the fact that it is not articles by Nick Greene on John Donne nor eight-hour bills nor covenants nor factory acts that matter; it's something useless, sudden, violent; something that costs a life; red, blue, purple; a spirit; a splash; like those hyacinths (she was passing a fine bed of them); free from taint, dependence, soilure of humanity or care for one's kind; something rash, ridiculous, like my hyacinth, husband I mean, Bonthrop: that's what it is - a toy boat on the Serpentine, ecstasy - it's ecstasy that matters. ~ Virginia Woolf

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. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. ~ John Donne

Stay, O sweet, and do not rise;
The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not, it is my heart,
Because that you and I must part. ~ John Donne

Only our love hath no decay;
This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday,
Running it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day. ~ John Donne

And to 'scape stormy days, I choose an everlasting night. ~ John Donne

Then love is sin, and let me sinful be. ~ John Donne

Doubt wisely; in strange way
To stand inquiring right, is not to stray;
To sleep, or run wrong, is. ~ John Donne

As God loves a cheerful giver, so he also loves a cheerful taker. Who takes hold of his gifts with a glad heart. ~ John Donne

I sing the progress of a deathless soul. ~ John Donne

Between cowardice and despair, valour is gendred. ~ John Donne

Death comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes. ~ John Donne

Send home my long strayed eyes to me, Which (Oh) too long have dwelt on thee. ~ John Donne

I think it mercy if Thou wilt forget. ~ John Donne

The day breaks not, it is my heart. ~ John Donne

I joy, that in these straits I see my west; ~ John Donne

The force of originality "that made Donne so potent an influence in the seventeenth century makes him now at once for us, without his being the less felt as of his period, contemporary - obviously a living poet in the most important sense." In "The Good-Morrow" Leavis said that ~ John Donne

So, so, break off this last lamenting kiss, Which sucks two souls, and vapors both away. ~ John Donne

But he who loveliness within Hath found, all outward loathes, For he who color loves, and skin, Loves but their oldest clothes. ~ John Donne

By nature, which gave it, this liberty Thou lov'st, but Oh! canst thou love it and me? Likeness glues love: Then if so thou do, To make us like and love, must I change too? ~ John Donne

Song

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.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
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,
Thought 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

As soon as there was two there was pride. ~ John Donne

Filled with her love, may I be rather grown
Mad with much heart, then idiot with none. ~ John Donne

All other things to their destruction draw, Only our love hath no decay ... ~ John Donne

Can there be worse sickness, than to know that we are never well, nor can be so? ~ John Donne

True and false fears let us refrain,
Let us love nobly, and live, and add again
Years and years unto years, till we attain
To write threescore: this is the second of our reign. ~ John Donne

The difference between the reason of man and the instinct of the beast is this, that the beast does but know, but the man knows that he knows. ~ John Donne

And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all. ~ John Donne

Who knows his virtues name or place, hath none. ~ John Donne

Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven. ~ John Donne

Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill;
Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy fears fulfill. ~ John Donne

Thy face is mine eye, and mine is thine. ~ John Donne

To be no part of any body, is to be nothing. ~ John Donne

Busie olde foole, unruly Sunne;
Why dost thou thus,
Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?
Must to they motions lovers seasons run?
Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide
Late schoole boyes, and sowre prentices,
Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride,
Call countrey ands to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clyme,
Nor houres, dayes, months, which are the rags of time.

Thy beames, so reverend, and strong
Why shouldst thou thinke?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
If her eyes have not blinded thine
Looke, and tomorrow late, tell mee,
Whether both the India's of spice and Myne
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with mee.
Aske for those Kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt heare, All here in one bed lay.

She'is all States, and all Princes, I,
Nothing else is;
Princes doe but play us; compar'd to this,
All honor's mimique; All wealth alchimie,
Thou sunne art halfe as happy'as wee,
In that the world's contracted thus;
Thine ages askes ease, and since thy duties bee
To warme the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art every where;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare. ~ John Donne

Nature hath no goal, though she hath law. ~ John Donne

Solitude is a torment which is not threatened in hell itself. ~ John Donne

Friends are ourselves. ~ John Donne

Great sins are great possessions; but levities and vanities possess us too; and men had rather part with Christ than with any possession. ~ John Donne

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

This Extasie doth unperplex (We said) and tell us what we love, Wee see by this, it was not sexe, Wee see, we saw not what did move: But as all severall soules contain Mixture of things, they know not what, Love, these mixt souls, doth mixe againe. Loves mysteries in soules doe grow, But yet the body is his booke. ~ John Donne

Nothing but man of all envenomed things, doth work upon itself, with inborn stings. ~ John Donne

How great love is, presence best trial makes, But absence tries how long this love will be. ~ John Donne

Changed loves are but changed sorts of meat,
And when he hath the kernel eat,
Who doth not fling away the shell? ~ John Donne

Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,
Before I knew thy face or name ~ John Donne

Licence my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below. ~ John Donne

All measure, and all language, I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was. ~ John Donne

If I dream I have you, I have you, for all our joys are but fantastical. ~ John Donne

Art is the most passionate orgy within man's grasp. ~ John Donne

How blest am I in this discovering thee!
To enter in these bonds is to be free;
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be ~ John Donne

Death Be Not Proud
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.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
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 ; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. ~ John Donne