Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time, but time is as a short parenthesis in a long period.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that time is transient and fleeting compared to the concept of eternity.
John Donne emphasizes the idea that while human life is bound by time, eternity extends infinitely beyond it. He likens time to a brief parenthesis within a larger context, urging us to consider the bigger picture of existence beyond our temporal experiences.
Themes
EternityTimePhilosophyExistencePerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of time.
More from John Donne
All quotes βReason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
John DonneRead
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
John DonneRead
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
John DonneRead
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 DonneRead
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
John DonneRead
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