1572-1632, British Metaphysical Poet
Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
John Donne – [Suffering]
And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.
John Donne – [Philosophers and Philosophy]
As he that fears God hears nothing else, so, he that sees God sees every thing else.
John Donne – [Faith]
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 – [Death and Dying]
At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole.
John Donne – [Greatness]
Be your own palace, or the world is your jail.
John Donne – [Self-sufficiency]
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 – [Lovers]
But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.
John Donne – [Self-sabotage]
Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because they contend not about matter of fact, nor can determine their controversies by any certain witnesses, nor judges. But as long as they go towards peace, that is Truth, it is no matter which way.
John Donne – [Quarrels]
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 – [Death and Dying]
Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.
John Donne – [Doubt]
Full nakedness! All my joys are due to thee, as souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, to taste whole joys.
John Donne – [Nudity]
God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice.
John Donne – [Translation]
He must pull out his own eyes, and see no creature, before he can say, he sees no God; He must be no man, and quench his reasonable soul, before he can say to himself, there is no God.
John Donne – [Atheism]
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
John Donne – [Doctors]
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 – [Prayer]
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 – [Death and Dying]
Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me, why plowing, building, ruling and the rest, or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest, by cursed Cain's race invented be, and blest Seth vexed us with Astronomy.
John Donne – [Science and Scientists]
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 – [Anniversaries]
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John Donne – [Love]