No Man is an Island
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 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.
John Donne, 1572-1631
Meditation 17 by Robert Bingaman
Excerpt from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623)
Text in public domain