William Blake Quotes
Painter
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.
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.
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
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 fool who persists in his folly will become wise.
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.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
Exuberance is beauty.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
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.
Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.
The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.
To generalize is to be an idiot.
Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.
If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.
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.
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind.
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.
Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
The eye altering, alters all.
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!
Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?
Opposition is true friendship.
The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.
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.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
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 whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
One thought fills immensity.
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.
The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
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.
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
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.
Lives in eternity's sun rise.
As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.
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.
Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.
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.
Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
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.
What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.
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.
Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.
Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
Every harlot was a virgin once.
If a thing loves, it is infinite.
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.
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!
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.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.