William Blake Quotes

I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body & mind to exercise the Divine Arts of ImaginationImagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable Universe is but a faint shadow & in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more. The Apostles knew of no other Gospel.

A robin redbreast in a cage Sets all heaven in a rage.

The Devil answer'd: bray a fool in a morter with wheat, yet shall not his folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? murder those who were murder'd because of him? turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of others to support him? bear false witness when he omitted making a defense before Pilate? covet when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.

The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & de

When the stars threw down their spears, and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

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 are born to sweet delight Some are born to endless night.

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.

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

Life delights in life.

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

The Old and New Testaments are the Great Code of Art.

May God us keepFrom Single vision and Newton's sleep.

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.

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

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.

What is Above is Within ... the Circumference is Winthin, Without is formed the Selfish Center, and the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.

IV   The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of a universe would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.V   If the many become the same as the few, when possess'd, More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul, less than All cannot satisfy Man.VI   If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be his eternal lot.VII   The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite & himself Infinite.

For every thing that lives is Holy.

But to go to school in a summer morn,O! It drives all joy away;Under a cruel eye outworn,The little ones spend the dayIn sighing and dismay.

One thought fills immensity.

I was angry with my friend:I told my wrath, my wrath did end.I was angry with my foe:I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Everything that lives lives not alone nor for itself.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

Imitation is criticism.

It is right it should be so;Man was made for joy and woe;And when this we rightly know,Thro' the world we safely go.Joy and woe are woven fine,A clothing for the soul divine.Under every grief and pineRuns a joy with silken twine.- "Auguries of Innocence

The emmet's inch and eagle's mileMake lame philosophy to smile.He who doubts from what he seesWill ne'er believe, do what you please.- "Auguries of Innocence

He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars: general good is the plea of the scoundrel hypocrite and flatterer. For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars.

But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.

How can the bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?How can a child, when fears annoy,But droop his tender wing,And forget his youthful spring?

He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

The lamb misused breeds public strifeAnd yet forgives the butcher's knife.

Improvement makes straight roads but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

A man can't soar too high, when he flies with his own wings.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare My business is to create.

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

No bird soars too high if he soars on his own wings.

I give you the end of a golden string,Only wind it into a ball,It will lead you in at Heaven's gateBuilt in Jerusalem's wall.

Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.

He who replies to words of doubtdoth put the light of knowledge out.

Man has no Body distinct from his soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.

I wander through each chartered street,Near where the chartered Thames does flow;A mark in every face I meet,Marks of weakness, marks of woe.In every cry of every man,In every infant’s cry of fear,In every voice, in every ban,The mind-forged manacles I hear:How the chimney-sweeper’s cryEvery blackening church appals,And the hapless soldier’s sighRuns in blood down palace-walls.But most, through midnight streets I hearHow the youthful harlot’s curseBlasts the new-born infant’s tear,And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.

What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

General good is the plea of the scoundrel hypocite flatterer.

We live as One Man for contracting our infinite senses we behold multitude or expanding: we behold as one.

I have mental joys and mental health Mental friends and mental wealth I've a wife that I love and that loves me I've all but riches bodily.

Did he who made the lamb make thee?

The bird a nest the spider a web man friendship.

How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?

Exuberance is beauty.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not my wrath did grow.

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 some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.

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

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.

For I dance And drink and sing,Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.If thought is lifeAnd strength and breathAnd the wantOf thought is deathThen am IA happy flyIf I liveOr if I die