“Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.”
Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)
Context: 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 Voice of the Devil
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
A Divine Image, st. 1
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)
Source: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
The Chimney Sweeper, st. 1
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)
“Opposition is true Friendship.”
A Memorable Fancy
1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
Source: The Portable Blake
The Divine Image, st. 3
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)
“The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
A Memorable Fancy
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
“Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.”
The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)
Context: The vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision's greatest enemy.
Thine has a great hook nose like thine;
Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
The Little Black Boy, st. 1
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)
The Smile, st. 1
1800s, Poems from the Pickering Manuscript (c. 1805)
St. 1
1790s, The Tyger (1794)
“A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 53
“It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.”
Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 4, plate 91, line 1
