quotations - Meaning of: "No man is an island, entire of itself"

No man is an Island, entire of itself

From an excerpt by Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

What does the line mean? Does it count as a proverb?

Answer

No, it's not a proverb. It's a quotation, and it was written not by Francis Bacon, but by John Donne. It’s from his Meditation XVII. Its meaning is perhaps apparent in the continuation, closing with the famous words that gave Ernest Hemingway the title of one of his books:

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 promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's 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.

Comments

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