William Blake
painter, poet, theologian, collector, printmaker, illustrator, philosopher, lithographer, graphic artist, printer, draftsperson, writer, sculptor, librettist, artist, exlibrist, watercolorist, miniature painter, engraver
Read on Wikipedia1757 – 1827
All Quotes by William Blake
“The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid, of Plato & Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible”
“How can the bird that is born for joy”
“Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court & the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War.”
“Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time's swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.”
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet;This is not done by jostling in the street.”
“If you have formed a circle to go into,Go into it yourself and see how you would do.”
“The Angel that presided o'er my birthGo love without the help of any thing on earth."”
“Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven,I oft have wished for Hell for ease from Heaven.”
“Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity...”
“Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!”
“Poetry Fetter'd. Fetters the Human Race. Nations are Destroy'd, or Flourish, in proportion as Their Poetry, Painting, and Music are Destroy'd or Flourish!”
“To see a World in a grain of sand,”
“”
“I am not a God afar off, I am a brother and friend;Lo! we are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense!”
“Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish’d at me.Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination”
“O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of ages”
“They have divided themselves by Wrath. they must be united by”
“Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder”
“I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's;I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.”
“Ever Weeping Paddington...”
“For every thing exists & not one sigh nor smile nor tear,One hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away.”
“I see the Four-fold Man.Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!”
“SUCH VISIONS HAVE APPEARD TO ME AMONG THE SONS OF ALBION”
“Exuberance is beauty.”
“The fields from Islington to Marybone, And there Jerusalems pillars stood.”
“Pancrass & Kentish-town repose Shine upon the starry sky.”
“He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars;For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.”
“What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church & WhatO Demonstrations of Reason Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!”
“England! awake! awake! awake!And close her from thy ancient walls?”
“It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.”
“Commerce is so far from being beneficial to Arts or to Empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their History shows, for the above Reason of Individual Merit being its Great Hatred. Empires flourish till they become Commercial & then they are scattered abroad to the four winds”
“When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do”
“Every Harlot was a Virgin once”
“It is not because Angels are Holier than Men or Devils that makes them Angels but because they do not Expect Holiness from one another but from God only”
“Thinking as I do that the Creator of this World is a very Cruel Being & being a Worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: "the Son, O how unlike the Father!" First God Almighty comes with a Thump on the Head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.”
“This world of imagination is the world of eternity.”
“You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue”
“…some say that Happiness is not Good for Mortals & they ought to be answerd that Sorrow is not fit for Immortals & is utterly useless to any one a blight never does good to a tree & if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.”
“The Goddess Fortune is the devils servant ready to Kiss any ones Arse.”
“The vision of Christ that thou dost see Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.”
“If He had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus, Obey’d Himself to Caiaphas.”
“God wants not man to humble himself: Thou also dwell’st in Eternity.”
“This life's dim windows of the soulWhen you see with, not through, the eye.”
“Seeing this False Christ, in fury and passion Either for Englishman or Jew.”
“I die, I die!" the Mother said,"My children die for lack of Bread.”
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
“My Brother starv'd between two Walls,His Children's Cry my Soul appalls;”
“The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's headAnd became a Tyrant in his stead.”
“Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.”
“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is - infinite.”
“One thought fills immensity.”
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
“I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.”
“Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.”
“Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
“Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.”
“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
“There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.”
“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
“Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? Or Love in a golden bowl?”
“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
“A Robin Redbreast in a Cage”
“How sweet I roamed from field to field,Who in the sunny beams did glide!”
“What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.”
“He loves to sit and hear me sing,And mocks my loss of liberty.”
“My silks and fine array,Such end true lovers have.”
“Like a fiend in a cloud,With frantic pain.”
“How have you left the ancient loveThe sound is forced, the notes are few!”
“True superstition is ignorant honesty & this is beloved of god and man.”
“Forgiveness of enemies can only come upon their repentance.”
“Active Evil is better than Passive Good.”
“They suppose that Woman's Love is Sin; in consequence all the Loves & Graces with them are Sin.”
“Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.”
“Piping down the valleys wild,So I piped; he wept to hear.”
“And I made a rural pen,Every child may joy to hear.”
“Sing louder aroundOn the ecchoing green.”
“Little Lamb, who made thee?Softest clothing, woolly bright.”
“My mother bore me in the southern wild,But I am black as if bereaved of light.”
“And we are put on earth a little space,Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.”
“The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.”
“I'll shade him from the heat till he can bearAnd be like him and he will then love me.”
“What is now proved was once only imagined.”
“”
“When my mother died I was very young,So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.”
“To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveReturn their thankfulness.”
“For Mercy has a human heart,And Peace, the human dress.”
“The moon like a flowerSits and smiles on the night.”
“And there the lion's ruddy eyesFrom our immortal day."”
“Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.”
“For washed in life's river,As Iguard o'er the fold.”
“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
“When the voices of children are heard on the greenAnd everything else is still.”
“Can I see another's woe,And not seek for kind relief?”
“Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public RECORDS to be True.”
“That the Jews assumed a right Exclusively to the benefits of God. will be a lasting witness against them. & the same will it be against Christians”
“I am not ashamed, afraid, or averse to tell you what Ought to be Told: That I am under the direction of Messengers from Heaven, Daily & Nightly;”
“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.”
“Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.”
“I have labour'd hard indeed, & have been borne on angel's wings. Till we meet I beg of God our Saviour to be with you & me, & yours & mine. Pray give my & my wife's love to Mrs Butts & Family, & believe me to remain.”
“Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade, Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.”
“To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.”
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
“The Foundation of Empire is Art & Science Remove them or Degrade them & the Empire is No More — Empire follows Art & Not Vice Versa as Englishmen suppose.”
“A man can't soar too high, when he flies with his own wings.”
“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”
“Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air;Hungry clouds swag on the deep.”
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
“Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary to human existence.”
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
“The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devils' party without knowing it.”
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.”
“What is now proved was once only imagined.”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
“Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare.”
“A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.”
“The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
“Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.”
“Opposition is true Friendship.”
“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
“What is now proved was once only imagined.”
“I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.”
“He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.”
“He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise.”
“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.”
“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”
“What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”
“Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.”
“Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”
“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.”
“The busy bee has no time for sorrow.”
“Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.”
“The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.”
“Opposition is true friendship.”
“The lamb misused breeds public strife”
“The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
“All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap.”
“Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?”
“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
“Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.”
“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”
“Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.”
“Prisons are built with stones of law; brothels with bricks of religion.”
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”
“The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.”
“The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.”
“Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time's swiftness/ Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment.”
“He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.”
“One thought fills immensity.”
“I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
“Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.”
“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”
“The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.”
“What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
“Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.”
“The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
“The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.”
“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
“What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.”
“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”
“Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.”
“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
“When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up thy head!”
“The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.”
“Exuberance is Beauty.”
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand”
“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.”
“Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.”
“When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.”
“Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed.”
“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
“Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.”
“Enough! or too much.”
“Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”
“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.”
“Never seek to tell thy loveOh, was no deny.”
“The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
“I asked a thief to steal me a peach:Enjoyed the lady.”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
“Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,Little sorrows sit and weep.”
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
“Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.”
“Why art thou silent and invisible,Father of Jealousy?”
“Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.”
“Love to faults is always blind,And breaks all chains from every mind.”
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
“The sword sung on the barren heath,But could not make the sickle yield.”
“I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
“Abstinence sows sand all overPlants fruits of life and beauty there.”
“Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
“If you trap the moment before it's ripe,You can never wipe off the tears of woe.”
“When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.”
“Then old Nobodaddy aloftEvery bit as well as war and slaughtering."”
“Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.”
“He who binds to himself a joyLives in eternity's sunrise.”
“Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.”
“The look of love alarmsShall win the lover's hire.”
“When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.”
“What is it men in women do require?The lineaments of gratified desire.”
“Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.”
“Hear the voice of the Bard,That walked among the ancient trees.”
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
“Turn away no more;Is given thee till the break of day.”
“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”
“Love seeketh not itself to please,And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.”
“To the eyes of a miser a guinea is more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes.”
“Love seeketh only Self to please,And builds a hell in heaven’s despite.”
“To generalize is to be an idiot.”
“Little Fly,Shall brush my wing.”
“The eye altering, alters all.”
“The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.”
“I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!”
“In every cry of every Man,The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.”
“But to go to school in a summer morn,”
“Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.”
“But most, thro' midnight streets I hearAnd blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.”
“Exuberance is beauty.”
“Pity would be no moreIf all were as happy as we.”
“Opposition is true friendship.”
“My mother groan'd! my father wept.Like a fiend hid in a cloud.”
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
“Lives in eternity's sun rise.”
“I was angry with my friend:I told it not, my wrath did grow.”
“One thought fills immensity.”
“In the morning glad I seeMy foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.”
“Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind.”
“Children of the future Age Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.”
“The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.”
“Cruelty has a human heart,And Secrecy the human dress.”
“The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.”
“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
“That the Jews assumed a right exclusively to the benefits of God will be a lasting witness against them and the same will it be against Christians.”
“In what distant deeps or skies What the hand dare seize the fire?”
“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
“When the stars threw down their spears, Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
“Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.”
“What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”
“For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.”
“But Want of Money & the Distress of A Thief can never be alleged as the Cause of his Thieving, for many honest people endure greater hard ships with Fortitude. We must therefore seek the Cause else where than in want of Money for that is the Misers passion, not the Thiefs.”
“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”
“Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.”
“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
“When a Man has Married a Wifeglued together.”
“The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.”
“Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'dAround their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.”
“Active Evil is better than Passive Good.”
“Acts themselves alone are history, and these are neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire, Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is not worth reading.”
“You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.”
“Art can never exist without Naked Beauty displayed.”
“Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.”
“Art is the tree of life.”
“Every harlot was a virgin once.”
“Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists”
“What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion. O demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!”
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand And Eternity in an hour.”
“As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”
“A robin redbreast in a cagePuts all Heaven in a rage.”
“Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth.”
“What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.”
“A dog starved at his master's gatePredicts the ruin of the state.”
“Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.”
“He who shall hurt the little wrenShall never be beloved by men.”
“It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God only.”
“A truth that's told with bad intentBeats all the lies you can invent.”
“He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.”
“Man was made for joy and woe,A clothing for the soul divine.”
“A truth that's told with bad intent”
“Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”
“Every tear from every eyeBecomes a babe in eternity.”
“I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.”
“He who shall teach the child to doubtThe rotting grave shall ne'er get out.”
“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
“The strongest poison ever knownCame from Caesar's laurel crown.”
“Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.”
“He who doubts from what he seesThey'd immediately go out.”
“The harlot's cry from street to streetShall weave old England's winding sheet.”
“Every night, and every morn,Some are born to endless night.”
“He who binds to himself a joy”
“God appears and god is light To those who dwell in realms of day”
“My specter around me night and dayWeeps incessantly for my sin.”
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
“And throughout all eternityI forgive you, you forgive me.”
“Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau.And the wind blows it back again.”
“Terror in the house does roar,But Pity stands before the door.”
“There is a smile of love,In which these two smiles meet.”
“This cabinet is formed of goldAnd a little lovely moony night.”
“For a tear is an intellectual thing,Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.”