No Man Is An Island Tea Towel

This poignant quotation on this tea towel is from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, a 1624 work by the English poet John Donne. It’s a reminder of our connection to the rest of humanity and that we cannot thrive when are isolated from others – a particularly important message in a political era where the rhetoric of division and isolation seems increasingly common.

Here’s the full verse:

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.