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We have a winding sheet in our mother’s womb, which grows with us from our conception, and we come into the world, wound up in that winding sheet, for we come to seek a grave.

— John Donne XXVI Sermons (1661)

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More quotes by John Donne

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.

Poems (1633)

Fill'd with her love, may I be rather grown
Mad with much heart, than idiot with none.

Poems (1633)

To rage, to lust, to write to, to commend,
All is the purlieu of the god of love.

Poems (1633)

Nature’s great masterpiece, an elephant,
The only harmless great thing.

The Progress of the Soul (1601)

Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is;
All the air is thy diocese.

All John Donne quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Donne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.