John Donne

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No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe;
every man is a peece of the Continent,
a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were,
as well as if a Manor of thy friends
or of thine owne were;
any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne


No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe
For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations...

~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House