John Donne Quotes

We are all conceived in close prison; in our mothers wombs, we are close prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.

Is life a pregnancy? That would make death a birth.

There are two things that you have to do in life: You have to die, and you have to live until you die. The rest is up to you.

I've been present at birth, and death is just as present and in equal balance. And I've been present at death, and birth is just as present, again in equal balance.

If you haven't understood that if you are born you die, you scarcely deserve to be able to be alive.

The two most mysterious things in our lives are birth and death. They are both miraculous events; one brings shiny, brand new life into the world, and the other snuffs it out like that. That person isn't there anymore.

Death in its way comes just as much of a surprise as birth.

Whatever lives is granted breath But by the grace and sufferance of Death.

In order to die, you must first have lived.

We have lost, being born, as much as we shall lose dying: Everything!

We die, because we live.

Death is the only mystery we all solve.

It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end.

Every breath you take, you are getting closer to the grave. But every breath you take, you can also get closer to your liberation.

The dream crossed twilight between birth and dying.

Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all.

She'll die.' 'Aye. That's a consequence of being alive.

In the end, living is defined by dying.

Birth and death; we all move between these two unknowns.

We all fly. Once you leave the ground, you fly. Some people fly longer than others.

Nothing is a matter of life and death except life and death.

There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be.

Everything born has to die, in order to make room for the future.

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

You're either living or you're dead.