John Donne Quotes

It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now

I was no Marie Antoinette. I was not born to nobility, but I had a human right to nobility.

Aristocracy is naturally abhorrent to me, and adored equality is my idol.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors.

Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order.

A Plowman on his knees is higher than a Gentleman on his legs.

Aristocrats might shrug, but commoners, dreading any collapse of the social order, wanted the rules of behavior to be observed.

When my mouth shall be filled with dust, and the worm shall feed, and feed sweetly upon me, when the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest alive tread upon him, nor the poorest receive any contentment in being made equal to princes, for they shall be equal but in dust.

Mean and mighty, rotting Together, have one dust.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

We are dust and to dust return. In the end we're neither air, nor fire, nor water, just dirt, neither more nor less, just dirt, and maybe some yellow flowers.

Death is the great leveller.

...if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.

We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.

These families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.

We'll all be equal under the grass, and God's got a heaven for country trash.

The world's decay where the wind's hands have passed, And my head, worn out with love, at rest In my hands, and my hands full of dust.

If thou hast no inferiors, have patience awhile, and thou shalt have no superiors. The grave requires no marshal.

To me there is no difference whether president, beggar, or king.

If it were ever allowable to forget what is due to superiority of rank, it would be when the privileged themselves remember it.

After his death the gardener does not become a butterfly, intoxicated by the perfumes of the flowers, but a garden worm tasting all the dark, nitrogenous, and spicy delights of the soil.

That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust That measures all our time; which also shall Be crumbled into dust.

We're all cremated equal.

Today nobility is gone: there is only a peerage.

In all societies, it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest; not that the highest are always the best, but because, if disgusted there, we can descend at any time; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible.