Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel Quotes

“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.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel

“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; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that library where every book shall lie open to one another;”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel

“Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before? Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more. "Wilt Thou forgive that sin, which I have won Others to sin, and made my sin their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two:—but wallow'd in a score? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more. "I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son Shall shine as He shines now, and heretofore; And having done that, Thou hast done, I fear no more.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“If I were but mere dust and ashes I might speak unto the Lord, for the Lord's hand made me of this dust, and the Lord's hand shall re-collect these ashes; the Lord's hand was the wheel upon which this vessel of clay was framed, and the Lord's hand is the urn in which these ashes shall be preserved. I am the dust and the ashes of the temple of the Holy Ghost, and what marble is so precious? But I am more than dust and ashes: I am my best part, I am my soul. And being so, the breath of God, I may breathe back these pious expostulations to my God:”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“As yet God suspends me between heaven and earth, as a meteor; and I am not in heaven because an earthly body clogs me, and I am not in the earth because a heavenly soul sustains me.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“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!”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“I need thy thunder, O my God; thy music will not serve me.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“That so all vapours of all disobedience to thee, being subdued under my feet, I may, in the power and triumph of thy Son, tread victoriously upon my grave, and trample upon the lion and dragon [182] that lie under it to devour me.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“O Lord, as one made so by thee, to think me fit for thee; and whether it be thy pleasure to dispose of this body, this garment, so as to put it to a farther wearing in this world, or to lay it up in the common wardrobe, the grave, for the next, glorify thyself in thy choice now, and glorify it then, with that glory, which thy Son, our Saviour Christ Jesus, hath purchased for them whom thou makest partakers of his resurrection. Amen.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“Let me not therefore, O my God, be ashamed of these fears, but let me feel them to determine where his fear did, in a present submitting of all to thy will.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“Give me tender and supple and conformable affections, that as I joy with them that joy, and mourn with them that mourn, so I may fear with them that fear.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; [80] the secret, the mystery of the right use of fear. Dost thou not mean this when thou sayest, we shall understand the fear of the Lord? [81] Have it, and have benefit by it; have it, and stand under it; be directed by it, and not be dejected with it. And dost thou not propose that church for our example when thou sayest, the church of Judea walked in the fear of God; [82] they had it, but did not sit down lazily, nor fall down weakly, nor sink under it. There is a fear which weakens men in the service of God.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“So well hast thou provided that we should always fear thee, as that thou hast provided that we should fear no person but thee, nothing but thee; no men? No. Whom? The Lord is my help and my salvation, whom shall I fear? [74] Great enemies? Not great enemies, for no enemies are great to them that fear thee.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“My God, my God, I find in thy book that fear is a stifling spirit, a spirit of suffocation; that Ishbosheth could not speak, nor reply in his own defence to Abner, because he was afraid.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“And, O my God, who madest thyself a light in a bush, in the midst of these brambles and thorns of a sharp sickness, appear unto me so that I may see thee, and know thee to be my God, applying thyself to me, even in these sharp and thorny passages.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“There is no rest in my bones, because of my sin; [11] transfer my sins, with which thou art so displeased, upon him with whom thou art so well pleased, Christ Jesus, and there will be rest in my bones.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“Thy breath in the congregation, thy word in the church, breathes communion and consolation here, and consummation hereafter;”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“man is so little, in respect of the greatest man, as the greatest in respect of God; for here, in that, we have not so much as a measure to try it by; proportion is no measure for infinity.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel

“Let thy merciful providence so govern all in this sickness, that I never fall into utter darkness, ignorance of thee, or inconsideration of myself; and let those shadows which do fall upon me, faintness of spirit, and condemnations of myself, be overcome by the power of thine irresistible light, the God of consolation; that when those shadows have done their office upon me, to let me see, that of myself I should fall into irrecoverable darkness, thy Spirit may do his office upon those shadows, and disperse them, and establish me in so bright a day here, as may be a critical day to me, a day wherein and whereby I may give thy judgement upon myself, and that the words of thy Son, spoken to his apostles, may reflect upon me, 'Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel

“Nay, the preparation is thine too; this melting, this wounding, this breaking, this contrition, which I have now, is the way to thy end; and those discomforts are, for all that, the earnest of thy Spirit in my heart; and where thou givest earnest, thou wilt perform the bargain”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel

“Oh who, if before he had a being he could have sense of this misery, would buy a being here upon these conditions?”
― John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Death's Duel