John Donne Quotes

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

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

Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity

How much shall I be changed, before I am changed!

Poor intricated soul! Riddling, perplexed, labyrinthical soul!

Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.

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

Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

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

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

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.

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.

I do not love a man, except I hate his vices, because those vices are the enemies, and the destruction of that friend whom I love.

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

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

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?

Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it and made fit for God.

God affords no man the comfort, the false comfort of Atheism: He will not allow a pretending Atheist the power to flatter himself, so far, as to seriously think there is no God.

A man that is not afraid of a Lion is afraid of a Cat .

I neglect God and his angles for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.

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

This only is charity, to do all, all that we can.

I shall die reading; since my book and a grave are so near.

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

O how feeble is man's power, that if good fortune fall, cannot add another hour, nor a lost hour recall!

Thy face is mine eye, and mine is thine.

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

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.

Sleep is pain's easiest salve, and doth fulfil All offices of death, except to kill.

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

Then love is sin, and let me sinful be.

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.

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

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

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.

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

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

Love is a growing, or full constant light; And his first minute, after noon, is night.

All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.

Pleasure is none, if not diversified.

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

Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.

The sun must not set upon anger, much less will I let the sun set upon the anger of God towards me.

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.

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

...Whatever dies was not mixed equally, If our two loves be one Or thou and I love so alike That none can slacken, none can die.

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.

Who are a little wise the best fools be.

If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

On a huge hill, Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goo.