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From an excerpt by Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and does it count as a proverb?

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No, it's not a proverb. It's a quotation, and it was written not by Francis Bacon, but by John Donne. It’s from his Meditation XVII. Its meaning is perhaps apparent in the continuation, closing with the famous words that gave Ernest Hemingway the title of one of his books:

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 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.

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Though it may be a quotation no man is an island is entrenched in English as a proverb. Every proverb had to be started by someone, and others who repeated it were quoting that someone. – Kaz Mar 2 at 10:05
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@Kaz. The OED’s definition of a proverb is ‘a short, traditional, and pithy saying; a concise sentence, typically metaphorical or alliterative in form, stating a general truth or piece of advice; an adage or maxim’, so you might say that that makes the Donne quotation a proverb. I wouldn’t. Because its authorship is so readily identifiable, it seems to make more sense to describe it as a quotation. Otherwise, where does it end? Are all well-known quotations to be described as proverbs? – Barrie England Mar 2 at 10:28
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Quite a few proverbs were co-authored by Solomon. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 2 at 10:45
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@Edwin Ashworth. The authorship of the scriptures cannot be so confidently asserted as the authorship of the works of the English canon. – Barrie England Mar 2 at 10:50
@BarrieEngland: While it is good to give credit where credit is due--and scholarly pursuits can be helpful, to make a fetish of finding the source of memorable words can be unprofitable and clearly less important than grasping the meaning and significance of those words. How they speak wisdom to the human condition, and through their power enhance and affirm the dignity of the human race, far surpasses in importance the search for who wrote (or spoke) precisely what and where and when. The power of words to edify, instruct, inspire, and comfort should ever be our primary focus. Amen. – rhetorician May 8 at 17:39
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It means human can not get along with their lives alone and succeed, and we are all dependent on other people and we need them. We cann't just thrive by being alone.

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It means that since we live in a cooperative and interdependent society, your actions will always affect someone else. The only way for your actions to affect no one but yourself is to live alone on an island.

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Yes we always need a companion in life not only someone next to us in bed every night but people that are connected to us who can share life encouragement,challenges that leads to success,that can help us to cheer up on our realities whether these are bad or good.

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'No man is an island'dramatically delineates the underlying connectedness of man with man and of man with Nature.Every man is a replication of the primordial Life-force which is in existence since the begining of time. Just as the planet Earth is a member of the solar system which is a micro-cosm of the greater galactica so too Man in it is an infinitesimally small link in the chain of the Great Creation. Inter-connectedness and inter-dependencies are the substratum of the Universe outside and of the world within.

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