Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
John Donne did jail time for his marriage to Anne More. He eloped with her when she was a teenager and it turns out her father (who happened to work for the government) wasn't thrilled. Maybe he isn't a perfect role model, but they guy knew a thing or two about love. (Source.)
When Donne was talking about death in that first stanza—uh, yeah, he knew a little about death. He became so obsessed with death and immortality, that he commissioned a portrait of himself rising from the grave. (Source.)
So that's where that quote is from! John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions includes two of the most famous phrases in English: "No man is an island" and "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." (Source.)