William Blake quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by William Blake

William Blake Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from William Blake on Wise Famous Quotes.

There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.

Without contraries there is no progression.

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

Joy and woe are woven fine.

Father, O father! what do we here
In this land of unbelief and fear?

Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine, runs a joy with silken twine.

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!

Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise.

England! awake! awake! awake! Jerusalem thy sister calls! Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death And close her from thy ancient walls?

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.

The busy bee has no time for sorrow. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no

There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.

He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out.

When the voices of children are heard on the greenAnd laughing is heard on the hill,My heart is at rest within my breastAnd everything else is still.

He who loves his enemies betrays his friends; this surely is not what Jesus meant.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

In a wife I would desire / What in whores is always found / The lineaments of gratified desire.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.

I said: 'Thou thing of patches, rings,
Pins, necklaces and suchlike things,
Disguiser of the female form,
Thou paltry, gilded poisonous worm!

Mercy is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love

Come live, and be merry, and join with me, To sing the sweet chorus of 'Ha ha he!

All futurity seems teeming with endless destruction never to be repelled; Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.

Every mortal loss is an immortal gain.

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them.

The moon, like a flower in heaven's high bower, with silent delight sits and smiles on the night.

There is a smile of love, And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles In which these two smiles meet.

To my eye Rubens' colouring is most contemptible. His shadows are a filthy brown somewhat the colour of excrement.

More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul.

He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty.

If a thing loves, it is infinite.
(Annotations to Swedenborg)

I love hanging and drawing and quartering
Every bit as well as war and slaughtering.

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

You become what you behold.

The pure soul shall mount on native wings, ... and cut a path into the heaven of glory.

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

He who has suffered you to impose on him knows you.

Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse.

Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?
Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?

Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire.

Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with ignorance ...

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's ass.

None but blockheads copy each other.

A man can't soar too high, when he flies with his own wings.

Abstinence sows sand all over The ruddy limbs and flaming hair, But desire gratified Plants fruits of life and beauty there.

The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

He who shall teach the child to doubtThe rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy!

The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.

Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven,I oft have wished for Hell for ease from Heaven.

Every harlot was a virgin once

I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.

'Come hither, my boy, tell me what thou seest there?' 'A fool tangled in a religious snare.'

We are here to learn to endure the beams of love.

Heaven is in a grain of sand.

What has reason to do with the art of painting?

Thou art a man God is no more Thy own humanity Learn to adore

But to go to school in a summer morn, O! It drives all joy away; Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay.

To be an Error and to be Cast out is a part of God's Design.

To Generalize is to be an Idiot; To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit.

The Errors of a Wise Man make your Rule Rather than the Perfections of a Fool.

Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm.

Never seek to tell thy love; Love that never told can be. For the gentle wind does move silently.. invisibly.

The Whole Business of Man is The Arts, & All Things Common.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

When the doors of perception are cleansed, men will see things as they truly are, infinite.

I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill

The naked woman's body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.

When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!

I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.

He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists

Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?

Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.

The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.

The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.

Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public Records to be true.

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

I am going to that country which I have all my life wished to see.

And throughout all Eternity
I forgive you, you forgive me.
As our dear Redeemer said:
This the Wine, and this the Bread.

The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

Mere enthusiasm is the all in all ... / Passion and expression are beauty itself.

And I made a rural pen, And I stained the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every Child may joy to hear.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.

Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.

Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones. Generalization and abstraction are the plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave.

The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.