John Donne

"We study health, and we deliberate upon our meats and drink and air and exercises, and we hew and we polish every stone that goes to that building; and so our health is a long and regular work. But in a minute a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all; a sickness unprevented for all our diligence, unsuspected for all our curiosity, nay, undeserved, if we consider only disorder, summons us, seizes us, possesses us, destroys us in an instant."

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Source: John Donne (1839). “The Works of John Donne: Sermons. Devotions upon emergent occasions”, p.496

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John Donne

John Donne

Poet, Cleric

John Donne was a 17th-century English poet known for his complex explorations of love, death, and spirituality, particularly in works like 'The Flea' and 'Death Be Not Proud.'

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