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 to 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.
-- John Donne (1572-1631)