William Blake Quotes on Nature (11 Quotes)

Nature in darkness groans and men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night restless they turn on beds of sorrow in their inmost brain feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words of stern philosophy and knead the bread of knowledge with tears and groans.

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, thinking that as the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell show the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.

When Sir Joshua Reynolds died All Nature was degraded The King dropped a tear in the Queen's ear, And all his pictures faded.

I asked a thief to steal me a peach He turned up his eyes. I asked a lithe lady to lie her down Holy and meek, she cries. As soon as I went An angel came. He winked at the thief And smiled at the dame And without one word spoke Had a peach from the tree, And twixt earnest and joke Enjoyed the lady.

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.

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.

Where man is not nature is barren.

Some say that happiness is not good for mortals, they ought to be answered that sorrow is not fit for immortals is utterly useless to any one a blight never does good to a tree, if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit, let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.

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.

Hear the voice of the Bard Who present, past, and future sees Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walked among the ancient trees.

When Nations grow Old, The Arts grow Cold And Commerce settles on every Tree.