William Blake Quotes (334 Quotes)

There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.

He who pretends to be either painter or engraver without being a master of drawing is an imposter.

Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipp'd the Devil If I thank'd my God for worldly things

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

When the blasts of winter appear.

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

Father, O father what do we here In this land of unbelief and fear The Land of Dreams is better far, Above the light of the morning star.'

Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public Records to be true.

England awake awake awake Jerusalem thy sister calls Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death And close her from thy ancient walls.

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.

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

How sweet I roamed from field to field, And tasted all the summer's pride, Till I the prince of love beheld, Who in the sunny beams did glide.

The selfish smiling fool, and the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.

Humility is only doubt, And does the sun and moon blot out.

The Angel that presided oer my birth Said Little creature, formd of joy and mirth, Go, love without the help of anything on earth.

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

And Father, how can I love you,
Or any of my brothers more?

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

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

Mechanical excellence is the only vehicle of genius.

I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.

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

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

To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination, and I feel flattered when I am told so. What is it sets Homer, Virgil and Milton in so high a rank of art Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book Is it not because they are addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and but immediately to the understanding or reason

Naught can deform the human race Like to the armourer's iron brace.

He who would see the Divinity must see him in his Children.

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit.

To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal EyesOf Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought into EternityEver expanding in the Bosom of God, the Human Imagination.

Folly is the cloak of knavery.

see the world in a grain of sand ... And eternity in an hour.

To the eyes of a miser a guinea is far more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions that a vine filled with grapes

The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands feet Proportion.

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

See what it is to play unfairWhere cheating is, there's mischief there.

The vision of Christ that thou dost see Is my visions greatest enemy.

Opposition is true friendship.

Everything that lives, Lives not alone, nor for itself.

Then I asked Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so' He replied All Poets believe that it does, and in ages of imagination this firm persuasion removed mountains but many are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything.'

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.

Bring out number weight and measure in a year of dearth.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

God appears, and God is Light,To those poor souls who dwell in Night,But does a human form displayTo those who dwell in realms of day.

A Robin Redbreast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage.

Take thy Bliss, O Man.

If a thing loves, it is infinite.

When I saw that rage was vainAnd to sulk would nothing gain,Turning many a trick and wileI began to soothe and smile.

The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's ass.

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

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