John Donne Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about John Donne

John Donne Quotes & Sayings

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But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner. — John Donne

The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can. — John Donne

The distance from nothing to a little, is ten thousand times more, than from it to the highest degree in this life. — John Donne

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

Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification. — John Donne

Love, built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies. — John Donne

In best understandings, sin began, Angels sinned first, then Devils, and then Man. — John Donne

Since you would save none of me, I bury some of you. — 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

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

Thy face is mine eye, and mine is thine. — 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

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

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

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

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

When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language. — John Donne

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

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

Sleep with clean hands, either kept clean all day by integrity or washed clean at night by repentance. — John Donne

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

Without outward declarations, who can conclude an inward love? — John Donne

The heavens rejoice in motion, why should I Abjure my so much loved variety. — John Donne

Methinks I lied all winter, when I swore
My love was infinite, if spring makes it more. — John Donne

Kind pity chokes my spleen. — John Donne

No man is an island, entire of itself. — John Donne

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

The day breaks not, it is my heart. — 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

Yesternight the sun went hence, And yet is here today. — John Donne

Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse. — John Donne

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

Doth not a man die even in his birth? The breaking of prison is death, and what is our birth, but a breaking of prison? — John Donne

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

Thou, sun, art half as happy as we. — John Donne

But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space. — John Donne

For love all love of other sights controls and makes one little room an everywhere — John Donne

There is in every miracle a silent chiding of the world, and a tacit reprehension of them who require, or who need miracles. — John Donne

Other men's crosses are not my crosses. — John Donne

Any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved with mankind. — John Donne

A mathematical point is the most indivisble and unique thing which art can present. — John Donne

To roam Giddily, and be everywhere but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become. — John Donne

My world's both parts, and 'o! Both parts must die. — John Donne

Oh do not die, for I shall hate All women so, when thou art gone. — 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

As virtuous men pass mildly away, and whisper to their souls to go, whilst some of their sad friends do say, the breath goes now, and some say no. — John Donne

Whoever 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

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

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

Thy firmness makes my circle just,
and makes me end where I begun. — John Donne

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

Teach me to hear mermaids singing, — John Donne

Festive alcohol sometimes leads to an excess of honesty. — John Donne

There is hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will. — John Donne

I fix mine eye on thine, and there
Pity my picture burning in thine eye ... — John Donne

Nature's lay idiot, I taught thee to love. — John Donne

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

All our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death. — John Donne

Never start with tomorrow to reach eternity. Eternity is not being reached by small steps. — John Donne

Good is not good, unless A thousand it possess, But doth waste with greediness. — John Donne

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

Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet. — John Donne

And as if reporting some felony to the police they let you know you were not John Donne. — Ted Hughes

Verse hath a middle nature: heaven keeps souls, The grave keeps bodies, verse the fame enrols. — John Donne

Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, The intelligence that moves, devotion is. — John Donne

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

Old grandsires talk of yesterday with sorrow, And for our children we reserve tomorrow. — John Donne

In the first minute that my soul is infused, the Image of God is imprinted in my soul; so forward is God in my behalf, and so early does he visit me. — John Donne

The Psalms foretell what I, what any shall do and suffer and say. — John Donne

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

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

Oft from new truths, and new phrase, new doubts grow, As strange attire aliens the men we know. — John Donne

I am a little world made cunningly. — John Donne

But come bad chance
And wee joyne to it our strength
And wee teach it art and length
It selfe o'er us to advance. — John Donne

Friends are ourselves. — John Donne

Who are a little wise the best fools be. — John Donne

No man is an island. If you want to blame anybody for poisoning the world with that socialistic idea, blame John Donne. — Timothy Noah

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

Great sorrows cannot speak. — John Donne

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

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

Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, ask not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. - John Donne — Meg Cabot

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

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

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

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

Comparisons are odious

Cervantes, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, ect... — Talon Rihai

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

So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us often. — John Donne

Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant;
the only harmless great thing. — John Donne

Sleep is pain's easiest salve — John Donne

God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. — John Donne

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

Man hath weaved out a net, and this net throwne upon the Heavens, and now they are his own. — John Donne

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

As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery. — John Donne

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; — John Donne