“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”
A Memorable Fancy
1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
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William Blake249
English Romantic poet and artist 1757–1827Related quotes
Peter J. Carroll (1953) British occultist
Source: Liber Null & Psychonaut (1987), p. 28
Context: Man considers himself center of will and a center of perception. Will and perception are not separate but only appear so to the mind. The unity which appears to the mind to exert twin functions of will and perception is called Kia by magicians. Sometimes it is called the spirit, or soul, or life force, instead.
William Winwood Reade (1838–1875) British historian
Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter IV, "Intellect", p. 417.
“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Aldous Huxley, using the term "the doors of perception" which originated with William Blake in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It is sometimes credited to Morrison because he cited it in interviews as the inspiration for the name The Doors and without always crediting Huxley as the source.
Misattributed
Idries Shah book Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Source: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author
Now, I don't actually think that's the first thing he wrote: he probably wrote 'my brain is melting' ten thousand times, but it was the book that the critics latched on to.
Is It Bill Bailey? (TV, 1998)
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 67