William Blake Quotes

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“This life's dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.”

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

“Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare.”

“Man was made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.”

“Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.”

“Exuberance is Beauty.”

“For every thing that lives is Holy.”

“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

“Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.”

“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.”

“Expect poison from the standing water.”

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

“Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?”

“He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.”

“The lamb misused breeds public strife
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.”

“Prisons are built with stones of law; brothels with bricks of religion.”

“I will not reason and compare my business is to create.”

“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.”

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

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

“Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.”

“O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:”

“I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.”

“Energy is eternal delight.”

“Without contraries there is no progression.”

“When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”

“What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”

“Dip him in the river who loves water.”

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

“When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.”

“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”

“thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.”

“The busy bee has no time for sorrow.”

“Make your own rules or be a slave to another man's.”

“And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification”

“The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.”

“The eye altering, alters all.”

“How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”

“Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake.”

“The prince's robes and beggar's rags,
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats all the lies you can invent”

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

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

“excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or graver into my hand.”

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

“When nations grow old, the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree.”

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

“Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.”

“The true method of knowledge is experiment.”