Quote#Love
As virtuous men pass mildly away
Quote byJohn Donne · 1572–1631
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Songs and Sonnets, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, stanzas 1 and 2.
English (original)
As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, The breath goes now, and some say, no:So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move, ’Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love.
— John Donne
More from John Donne
I sing the progress of a deathless soul.
So, of a lone unhaunted place possess’d, Did this soul’s second inn, built by the guest, This living buried man, this quiet mandrake, rest.
Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; For, thus friends absent speak.
And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy paced) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy gaol.
Great Destiny, the commissary of God.
Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant, The only harmless great thing.