30 Most Famous Quotes by Metaphysical Poet John Donne

John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier, and secretary who later became a cleric in the Church of England. He was appointed Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, under royal patronage. John Donne is widely regarded as the foremost representative of metaphysical poets.

30 Most Famous Quotes by Metaphysical Poet John Donne—

1. “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.” — John Donne
2. “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”— John Donne
3. “When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.”— John Donne

4. “More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”— John Donne

5. “In heaven it is always autumn.”— John Donne

6. “Death is an ascension to a better library.”— John Donne

7. “I am two fools, I know, For loving, and for saying so.”— John Donne

8. “I am a little world made cunningly.”— John Donne

9. “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

10. “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.”— John Donne

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

12. “Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing.”— John Donne

13. “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

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

15. “we give each other a smile with a future in it”— John Donne

16. “Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.”— John Donne

17. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”— John Donne

18. “As he that fears God fears nothing else, so he that sees God sees everything else.”— John Donne

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

20. “Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.”— John Donne

21. “The sun must not set upon anger, much less will I let the sun set upon the anger of God towards me.”— John Donne

22. “…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.”— John Donne

23. “Death, thou shalt die.”— John Donne

24. “Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.”— John Donne

25. “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

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

27. “To be no part of any body, is to be nothing.”— John Donne

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

29. “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

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