For Whom the Bell Tolls

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 (1624)
"Meditation XVII"

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Page Created on: March 13, 2001