William Blake's Quotes

That the Jews assumed a right exclusively to the benefits of God will be a lasting witness against them and the same will it be against Christians.

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

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

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

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

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

Every harlot was a virgin once.

One thought fills immensity.

Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.

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

Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.

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 soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.

Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.

Lives in eternity's sun rise.

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

The eye altering, alters all.

The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.

I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!

What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion. O demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!

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.

The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.

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.

What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.

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

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

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

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

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.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

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.

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.

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

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

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.

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.

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.

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

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

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

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

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

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

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

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

What is now proved was once only imagined.

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