No Man is an Island
Meaning
Human beings do not thrive when isolated from others. Donne was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism.
Origin
This is a quotation from John Donne. It appears in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII:
“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness…..No man is an island, entire of itself…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.”
