William Blake Quotes

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

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

He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity's sunrise.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

To generalize is to be an idiot.

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

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

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

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

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.

Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night.

Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.

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

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

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

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 road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise.

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.

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

When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.

The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated [i.e. mortal] body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the eternal realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.

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

Exuberance is beauty.

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

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

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

Never seek to tell thy love; Love that never told can be. For the gentle wind does move silently.. invisibly.

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

Knowledge is Life with wings

Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.

For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.

Opposition is true friendship.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

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

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.

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

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

Energy is an eternal delight.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

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

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.

The eye altering, alters all.

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

The busy bee has no time for sorrow.

The moon, like a flower in heaven's high bower, with silent delight sits and smiles on the night.

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

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

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.

As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.

Every harlot was a virgin once.

Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

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

Thou art a man God is no more Thy own humanity Learn to adore

The cut worm forgives the plow.

Active Evil is better than Passive Good.

Shame is pride's cloak.

As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity, I collected some of their Proverbs.

Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.

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

The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:While the Lily white shall in love delight,Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

As a man is, so he sees.

All futurity seems teeming with endless destruction never to be repelled; Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.

If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise

Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.

To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess.

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.

Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity.

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.

One thought fills immensity.

I must create a system, or be enslav'd by another man's.

It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God only.

Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with ignorance...

Tools were made and born were hands, Every farmer understands.

Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise.

One law for lion and ox is oppression.

The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.

There is a smile of love, And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles In which these two smiles meet.

What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death.