Quotes by John Donne

He that asks me what heaven is, means not to hear me, but to silence me; He knows I cannot tell him; when I meet him there, I shall be able to tell him, and then he will be as able to tell me; yet then we shall be but able to tell one another, this, this that we enjoy is heaven, but the tongues of angels, the tongues of glorified saints, shall not be able to express what that heaven is; for, even in heaven our faculties shall be finite.

In Heaven, it is always Autumn.

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

No man is an island, entire of itself.

I joy, that in these straits I see my west;

O! I shall soon despair, when I shall seeThat Thou lovest mankind well, yet wilt not choose me,And Satan hates me, yet is loth to lose me.

Methinks I lied all winter, when I sworeMy love was infinite, if spring makes it more.

I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a Sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.

No Spring nor Summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

Between cowardice and despair valour is gendered.

One short sleep past will wake eternally And death shall be no more Death thou shalt die.

Death be not proud though some have called Thee Mighty and dreadful for thou art not so.

Any mans death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.

Reason is our souls left hand Faith her right. By this we reach divinity.

Love built on beauty soon as beauty dies.

No man is an Island intire of it self every man is a peece of the Continent a part of the maine if a Clod be washed away by the sea Europe is the lesse as well as if a Promontorie were as well as if a manor of thy friends or thine own were. Any mans death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankinde and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.

I am two fools I know for loving and saying so.

Love all love of other sights controls. And makes one little room an everywhere.

If yet I have not all thy love love Dear I shall never have it all.

I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.