William Blake: Man

William Blake was English Romantic poet and artist. Explore interesting quotes on man.
William Blake: 498   quotes 66   likes

“The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”

William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

A Memorable Fancy
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

Water

“I see the Four-fold Man.
The Humanity in deadly sleep,
And its fallen Emanation. The Spectre & its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present & Future, existing all at once
Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!”

William Blake

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 15, lines 6-9

Sleep , Past , Future

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Source: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Appearance

“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

Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)
Context: 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..

Imagination , Nature

“I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's;
I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.”

William Blake book Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 10, lines 20-21 The Words of Los

Business

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

William Blake

A Memorable Fancy
1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

Appearance

“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.”

William Blake

Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 56. Compare Psalm 30:5 (KJV): "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

World , Soul , Joy , Clothes

“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.”

William Blake

The Fly, st. 1–3
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Art , Drink , Singing , Dance

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

William Blake

“True superstition is ignorant honesty & this is beloved of god and man.”

William Blake

1780s, Annotations to Lavater (1788)

God

“In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.”

William Blake London

London, st. 2
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Fear , Cry

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.”

William Blake

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Lines 8–9

Fools , Star , Tree , Light

“When a Man has Married a Wife
He finds out whether
Her Knees & elbows are only
glued together.”

William Blake

Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1800–1803)
1800s

“God wants not man to humble himself:
That is the trick of the Ancient Elf.
This is the race that Jesus ran:
Humble to God, haughty to man,
Cursing the Rulers before the people
Even to the Temple’s highest steeple,
And when He humbled Himself to God
Then descended the cruel rod.
‘If Thou Humblest Thyself, Thou humblest Me.
Thou also dwell’st in Eternity.”

William Blake

1810s, The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)

God , People

“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

“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

“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