John Donne is considered one of major authors of the 17th century. He was a renowned poet and became Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He is perhaps best known for the phrase, “No man is an island.”
I recently finished Katherine Rundell’s wonderful book about Donne, Super-Infinite, where she points out Donne believed in the importance of paying “attention to attention,” as Rundell put it. Why? Because our thoughts enable us to ponder both what is probable and impossible, what is near and far.
As Donne wrote, “Our thoughts… reach from East to West, from earth to Heaven, [they] not only bestride all the sea and land, but span the sun and firmament at once: my thoughts reach all, comprehend all. We exceed ourselves: it’s thus that a human is super-infinite.”
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