Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
Goe and catche a falling starre, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me, where all past yeares are, Or who cleft the Divel's foot. Teach me to hear Mermaides' singing, Or to keep of envies stinging, And finde What winde Serves to advance an honest minde.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a desire for knowledge beyond the ordinary, expressing the complexity of human experience and the quest for truth.
In this quote, John Donne conveys a profound longing for understanding the elusive and mysterious aspects of life. He challenges the reader to pursue knowledge that goes beyond the tangible, such as the mythical and the fantastical, while also yearning for insight into the deeper meanings of existence and the true essence of an honest mind. The whimsical imagery suggests that these inquiries are as difficult to grasp as catching a falling star, which underscores the futility yet fascination of such pursuits.
Themes
KnowledgeTruthWisdomLifeMystery
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about the pursuit of knowledge.
More from John Donne
All quotes →Reason 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
Similar quotes
Advice is sometimes transmitted more successfully through a joke than grave teaching.
Baltasar GracianRead
If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. Old families, old customs, old styles survive because they are fit to survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. Submerge the good in a flood of the new, and good will come back to join the good which the new brings with it. Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old-fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival. These will come back.
Eddie RickenbackerRead
Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again.
Meister EckhartRead
I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.
Daniel J. BoorstinRead
When, by meditation, we withdraw restless thoughts from the lake of the mind, we behold our soul, a perfect reflection of Spirit.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead