No Spring nor Summer beauty hath such grace As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

— John Donne

O! I shall soon despair, when I shall see That Thou lowest mankind well, yet wilt not choose me, And Satan hates me, yet is both to lose me.

— John Donne

One short sleep past will wake eternally And death shall be no more Death thou shalt die.

— John Donne

Only our love hath no decay; This is no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, Running it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

— John Donne

Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to aery thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two ; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the' other do. And though it in the center sit, Yet, when the other far 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 have begun.

— John Donne

Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right.

— John Donne

Reason is our soul's left-hand Faith her right. By this we reach divinity.

— John Donne

That our affections kill us not, nor dye.

— John Donne

The difference between the reason of man and the instinct of the beast is this that the beast does but know but the man knows that he knows.

— John Donne

The flea thought he kills none he does all the harm he can.

— John Donne