Quote#Time
A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a…
Quote byJohn Donne · 1572–1631
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: LXXX Sermons (1640), No. 80, preached at the funeral of Sir William Cokayne, 12 December 1626.
English (original)
A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an anything, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer. So certainly is there nothing, nothing in spiritual things, perfect in this world.
— 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.