Bro Doc the Chinese proverb perhaps means that it is a miracle to be able to even walk. Without being grateful for that the walking on thwe water shall probably not occur. The only thing I can see with John Donne’s quote would be love built on beauty (dies) as the beauty dies? But then perhaps as the other’s beauty declines our vision of what is beautiful is lowered or changed? Or else how could the elderly still claim they love each other, for most are attracted to the others beauty, weather it is their physcial beauty or their mental beauty. With age both beauties decline?