John Donne Men Quotations

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

When my mouth shall be filled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me, when the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest alive tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment in being made equal to princes, for they shall be equal but in dust.

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.

Young men mend not their sight by using old men's spectacles.

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

Man is not only a contributory creature, but a total creature; he does not only make one, but he is all; he is not a piece of the world, but the world itself, and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

And when a whirl-winde hath blowne the dust of the Churchyard into the Church, and man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Church-yard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again, and to pronounce, This is the Patrician, this is the noble flower, and this the yeomanly, this the Plebian bran.

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

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

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

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

Men have conceived a twofold use of sleep; it is a refreshing of the body in this life, and a preparing of the soul for the next.

God himself took a day to rest in, and a good man's grave is his Sabbath.

Other men's crosses are not my crosses.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated....As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all....No man is an island, entire of itself...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.

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.

Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification; and as without this, without holiness, no man shall see God, though he pore whole nights upon his Bible; so without that, without humility, no man shall hear God speak to his soul, though he hear three two-hour sermons every day.

Men perish with whispering sins-nay, with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience that they are sins, as often with crying sins; and in hell there shall meet as many men that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the compassing of sin.

That subtle knot which makes us man So must pure lovers souls descend T affections, and to faculties, Which sense may reach and apprehend, Else a great Prince in prison lies.

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

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

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

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.

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.

The world is a great volume, and man the index of that book; even in the body of man, you may turn to the whole world.

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.

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

No man is an island unto himself.

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