Quote#Nature
Are not your kisses then as filthy, and more
Quote byJohn Donne · 1572–1631
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Elegies, No. 8, The Comparison, line 43.
English (original)
Are not your kisses then as filthy, and more, As a worm sucking an envenom'd sore? Doth not thy fearful hand in feeling quake, As one which gathering flowers still fears a snake? Is not your last act harsh and violent, As when a plough a stony ground doth rent?
— 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.