Quotes from John Donne

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

Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so.

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

Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce, For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

If they be so two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other dar doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like the other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end, where I begun.

On a huge hill, Cragged and steep, Truth stands, and hee that will Reach her, about must, and about must goe; And what the hills suddenness resists, winne so; Yet strive so, that before age, deaths twilight, Thy Soule rest, for none can worke in that night.

Thy firmness makes my circle just, and makes me end where I begun.

O how feeble is man's power, That if good fortune fall, Cannot add another hour, Nor a lost hour recall! But come bad chance, And we join to'it our strength, And we teach it art and length, Itself o'er us to'advance.

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 Love was as subtly catched, as a disease; But being got it is a treasure sweet, Which to defend is harder than to get: And ought not be profaned on either part, For though 'tis got by chance,'tis kept by art

That our affections kill us not, nor dye.

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

Poor heretics there be, Which think to establish dangerous constancy, But I have told them, 'Since you will be true, You shall be true to them, who are false to you.