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
Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,’ Holly advised him. ‘That was Doc’s mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can’t give your heart to a wild thing; the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That’s how you’ll end up Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You’ll end up looking at the sky.
Truman CapoteRead
That's it really; it's all love, whichever way you look at it, it's all love. How much you can Get from each other and that's determined by how much you're Giving to each other... But it all starts Within our self and then it spreads to those around us, Good & Bad. But basically that's it, I think it's the Love that we can generate is = to the Love that we get back Amen
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The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
Gore VidalRead
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Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
Living with him is like being told a perpetual story: his mind is the biggest, most imaginative I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever.
Sylvia PlathRead
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Kazuo IshiguroRead