Inspirational Quotes by John Donne

“It was part of Adam's punishment, In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread: it is multiplied to me, I have earned bread in the sweat of my brows, in the labour of my calling, and I have it; and I sweat again and again, from the brow to the sole of the foot, but I eat no bread, I taste no sustenance: miserable distribution of mankind, where one half lacks meat, and the other stomach!”

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, (...) One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. (Sonnet X, 1609)”

“Holy Sonnets: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?" Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay? Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste, I run to death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday; I dare not move my dim eyes any way, Despair behind, and death before doth cast Such terror, and my feebled flesh doth waste By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh. Only thou art above, and when towards thee By thy leave I can look, I rise again; But our old subtle foe so tempteth me, That not one hour I can myself sustain; Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art, And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.”

“Are not heavens joyes as valiant to asswage Lusts, as earths honour was to them?”

“No man is an island entirely of itself. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.”

“Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because neither do they contend about matters of fact nor can they determine their controversies by any certain witnesses or judges.”

“I sing the progress of a deathless soul, Whom Fate, which God made, but doth not control, Placed in most shapes; all times before the law Yoked us, and when, and since, in this I sing. And the great world to his aged evening, From infant morn, through manly noon I draw.”

“That this world’s general sickness doth not lie In any humour, or one certain part; But as thou sawest it rotten at the heart, Thou seest a hectic fever hath got hold Of the whole substance, not to be controlled, And that thou hast but one way, not to admit The world’s infection, to be none of it.”

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, For, those, whome thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me; 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.”

“You are earth; he whom you tread upon is no less, and he that treads upon you is no more.”

“Nature hath no gaol, though she hath law.”

“For the first twenty years, since yesterday, I scarce believed thou could'st be gone away; For forty more, I fed on favors past, And forty' on hopes, that thou would'st they might last. Tears drowned one hundred, and sighs blew out two; A thousand, I did neither think, nor do, Or not divide, all being one thought of you; Or, in a thousand more, forget that too. Yet call not this, long life, but think that I Am, by being dead, immortal; can ghosts die?”

“To adore, or scorne an image, or protest, May all be bad; doubt wisely, in strange way To stand inquiring right, is not to stray; To sleepe, or runne wrong, is: on a huge hill, Cragg'd, and steep, Truth stands, and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goe; And what the hills suddenes resists, winne so; Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night.”

“The World is a great Volume, and man the Index of that Booke; even in the Body of Man, you may turne to the whole world.”

“Atlas There is a kind of love callend maintenance, Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it; Which checks the insurance, and doesn't forget The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs; Which answers letters; which knows the way The money goes; which deals with dentists And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains, And postcards to the lonely; which upholds The permanently rickety elaborate Structures of living; which is Atlas. And maintenance is the sensible side of love, Which knows what time and weather are doing To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring; Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps My suspect edifice upright in air, As Atlas did the sky.”

“WITCHCRAFT BY A PICTURE" I FIX mine eye on thine, and there Pity my picture burning in thine eye ; My picture drown'd in a transparent tear, When I look lower I espy ; Hadst thou the wicked skill By pictures made and marr'd, to kill, How many ways mightst thou perform thy will? But now I've drunk thy sweet salt tears, And though thou pour more, I'll depart ; My picture vanished, vanish all fears That I can be endamaged by that art ; Though thou retain of me One picture more, yet that will be, Being in thine own heart, from all malice free.”

“What virtue is it that is born with us? Much less can honor be ascribed thereto, Honor is purchased by the deeds we do. Believe me, Hero, honor is not won, Until some honorable deed be done. ----From “Hero and Leander, Sestiad I”

“O that these folding arms might ne'er undo!”

“Love always makes those eloquent that have it. ---From "Hero and Leander, Sestiad II”

“Every woman is a science; for he that plods upon a woman all his life long, shall at length finde himself short of the knowledge of her.”