No man is an island | John Donne (1624)

''No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.''


Modern version:

''No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.''

John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, "Meditation XVII", 1624

Bastian Kalous >

* These are perhaps the most famous lines in John Donne’s oeuvre, especially since they were used in the 20th century by Ernest Hemingway for the title of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940).