Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
Yet nothing can to nothing fall, Nor any place be empty quite; Therefore I think my breast hath all Those pieces still, though they be not unite; And now, as broken glasses show A hundred lesser faces, so My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, But after one such love, can love no more.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the enduring impact of love despite its loss and fragmentation.
John Donne's quote expresses the idea that even when love is lost and one's heart feels fragmented, the remnants of that love continue to exist within. He uses the metaphor of broken glass reflecting multiple lesser images to illustrate how the experience of love, even when it leads to heartbreak, continues to influence one's emotional landscape. The speaker acknowledges the lasting impressions that such deep feelings leave behind, indicating that while one may no longer be able to love in the same way after such an experience, the capacity for affection and admiration remains, albeit altered.
Themes
LoveHeartbreakLossMemoriesFragments
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the complexities of love at a wedding.
More from John Donne
All quotes →Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
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All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
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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?
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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.
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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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