5 Quotes by John Donne about life

  • Author John Donne
  • Quote

    I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and only declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a Sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.

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  • Author John Donne
  • Quote

    All mankind is one volume. When one man dies, a chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language. And every chapter must be translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God's hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall live open to one another

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  • Author John Donne
  • Quote

    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.

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