Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the nature of love and suggests a sense of wonder about life before love.
In this quote, John Donne explores the transformative power of love by questioning what life was like before experiencing such deep feelings. He invokes a sense of nostalgia and curiosity about their existence before love, suggesting that their prior experiences may have been trivial or immature compared to the profound connection they now share.
Themes
LoveWonderTransformationNostalgiaConnection
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding toast, one could use this quote to highlight the transformative power of love in a couple's life.
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
Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book.
Michael OndaatjeRead
It is not enough simply to wish that love and compassion should increase in us. We need to make a sustained effort, again and again, to cultivate the positive aspects within us - and the key here is constant familiarity. The nature of human thoughts and emotions is such that the more you engage in them, the more you consciously develop them, the more powerful they become.
Dalai LamaRead
This maiden she lived with no other thought_x000D_ _x000D_ Than to love and be loved by me.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.
Sherman AlexieRead
Who love too much, hate in the like extreme.
HomerRead
But love, I’ve come to understand, is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.
Nicholas SparksRead