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William Blake Quotes
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William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. What he called his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself".Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". A committed Christian who was hostile to the Church of England , Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".



Wikipedia  

✵ 28. November 1757 – 12. August 1827   •   Other names 威廉布萊克, Williem Blake
William Blake photo
William Blake: 249   quotes 66   likes

William Blake Quotes

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

William Blake

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 37

“When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up thy head!”

William Blake

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 54

“Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.”

William Blake

The Argument
1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

“The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.”

William Blake

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 35

“Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish’d at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination”

William Blake

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 5, lines 16-20 The Words of Blake

God , World , Imagination , Forgiveness

“"I die, I die!" the Mother said,
"My children die for lack of Bread."”

William Blake

The Grey Monk, stanza 1
1810s, Miscellaneous poems and fragments from the Nonesuch edition

Children

“Active Evil is better than Passive Good.”

William Blake

1780s, Annotations to Lavater (1788)

Evil

“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.”

William Blake

Song (How Sweet I Roamed), st. 4
1780s, Poetical Sketches (1783)

Love , Sport , Singing , Loss

“You'll quite remove the ancient curse.”

William Blake

No. 5, An Ancient Proverb
Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792), Several Questions Answered

“Enough! or too much.”

William Blake

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 70

“Ever Weeping Paddington…”

William Blake

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 12, line 28

“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.”

William Blake

Ibid
1800s, Milton (c. 1809)

Universe , War , Age , Men

“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. 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 by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers..”

William Blake

1790s, Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

Money , Tree , Imagination , Sun

“Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.”

William Blake

1790s, Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

Love , Making love , Happiness

“I die, I die!”

William Blake

the Mother said,
"My children die for lack of Bread."

The Grey Monk, stanza 1
1810s, Miscellaneous poems and fragments from the Nonesuch edition

“If He had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus,
He’d have done anything to please us;
Gone sneaking into synagogues,
And not us’d the Elders and Priests like dogs;
But humble as a lamb or ass
Obey’d Himself to Caiaphas.”

William Blake

1810s, The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)

Dogs

“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!"”

William Blake

First God Almighty comes with a Thump on the Head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.

A Vision of the Last Judgment
1810s

World , Thinking , Christ , Help

“Art is the tree of life.
SCIENCE is the Tree of DEATH
ART is the Tree of LIFEGOD is JESUS”

William Blake

The Laocoön
1800s

Tree , Art , Science , Life

“When nations grow old,
the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree:
And the poor and the old
Can live upon gold,
For all are born poor.
              Aged sixty-three.”

William Blake

On Art And Artists (1800) 'On the Foundation of the Royal Academy'
1800s

Tree , Age , Art

“O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.”

William Blake The Sick Rose

The Sick Rose, plate 39.
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Night , Art , Joy , Secret

“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.”

William Blake

The Clod and the Pebble, st. 1
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Sad , Heartbreaking , Despair , Love

“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;”

William Blake

1790s

“Damn sneerers!”

William Blake

1780s, Annotations to Lavater (1788)

“Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the Mole?
Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or Love in a golden bowl?”

William Blake The Book of Thel

The Book of Thel, Thel's Motto (1789–1792)
1780s

Love , Making love , Wisdom

“In my Brain are studies & Chambers fill'd with books & pictures of old, which I wrote & painted in ages of Eternity before my mortal life;”

William Blake

The Letters Of William Blake https://archive.org/details/lettersofwilliam002199mbp (1956), p. 50
1790s

Painting , Study , Books , Age