Phrase from one of the devotions of John Donne (c.1572-1631), English metaphysical poet and theologian. The best-known section reads:
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 promonotory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends 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.
The phrase "no man is an island" is often quoted to express our interrelatedness and our responsibility towards each other. It shows the fallacy in isolationism, in separatism. It is a moral imperative for concern for our fellow men, whether in the mattter of poverty or crime or political oppresion or AIDS
"Not Waving but Drowning":
Title poem (1957) of a book of verse by the English poet Stevie Smith (1902-71), about whose life with her aunt the movie "Stevie" was made. It is an ironic poem, with a tinge of black humor, about a man who is drowning and calling for help, but passersby on the shore think he is just waving high spiritedly.
The phrase "not waving but drowning" with which the poem ends, is used as a cri de coeur for help when one is floundering.
~Facts on File Dictionary of Historical and Cultural Allusions
nemesis:
One who inflicts retribution or vengeance; also a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent. The word comes from the name Greek goddess of retributive justice, Nemesis.
usage: In the swirl of controversy surrounding Jack KEVORKIAN, perhaps his biggest 'nemesis' has been Dr. Dragovic, the country's 46-year old mdical examiner. He's testified as a government witness in the three trials that eventually acquitted Kevorkian.
(Thomas Maier in Newsday, September 8, 1996)
~Merriam Webster's Dictionary of Allusions
