no man is an island

no man is an island

English

Etymology

From the 1623 quotation below.

Proverb

no man is an island

1. All people are connected to and dependent on other people.
   • 1623, John Donne, “Meditation XVII”, in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions:

     No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. […] any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, […]

   • 1992, Nixon, Richard, “The Renewal of America”, in Seize the Moment‎, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, LCCN 91-37743, OCLC 440652941, page 301:

     Just as no man is an island, no nation lives in isolation. When freedom is denied in one country, it is diminished in all.

   • 2014, Jeremi Szaniawski, The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 231:

     And yet, no man is an island, and Sokurov's desire to promote himself as an insular, unique figure, both in his thinking and in his work, is contradicted by the many arrangements and obligatory associations that cinematic production entails.

Translations

all people are dependent on other people

Chinese: Mandarin: 沒有人是一座孤島／没有人是一座孤岛 (méiyǒu rén shì yī zuò gūdǎo) Danish: alle mennesker er forbundne og afhængige af andre mennesker Finnish: yksikään ihminen ei ole saari Irish: is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine Japanese: なんぴとも一島嶼にてはあらず Portuguese: ninguém é uma ilha

Further reading

• No Man Is an Island on Wikipedia.Wikipedia