William Blake Quotes

Mercy, pity, and peace, Are the world's release.

Execution is the chariot of genius.

Life delights in life.

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.

A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.

God only acts and is, in existing beings or men.

I see the Past, Present & Future existing all at once Before me.

Every mortal loss is an immortal gain.

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

Energy is eternal delight.

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

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.

Invention depends altogether upon execution or organization; as that is right or wrong so is the invention perfect or imperfect.

Mercy is the golden chain by which society is bound together.

The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after death of the vegetative body.

For the Eye altering alters all; The Senses roll themselves in fear And the flat Earth becomes a Ball.

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

Without minute neatness of execution, the sublime cannot exist! Grandeur of ideas is founded on precision of ideas.

Gratitude is heaven itself; there could be no heaven without gratitude.

He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty.

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 countless gold of a merry heart, The rubies and pearls of a loving eye, The indolent never can bring to the mart, Nor the secret hoard up in his treasury.

To create a little flower is the labour of ages.

All wholesome food is caught without a net or trap.

In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

The cistern contains: The fountain overflows.

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.

The Angel that presided o'er my birth Said, 'Little creature, formed of joy and mirth, Go love without the help of any thing on earth'.

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

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.

Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.

Poetry fettered fetters the human race.

He who loves his enemies betrays his friends; this surely is not what Jesus meant.

If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.

And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds and binding with briars my joys and desires. (from 'The Garden of Love')

Mere enthusiasm is the all in all... / Passion and expression are beauty itself.

First thought is best in Art, second in other matters.

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

Come live, and be merry, and join with me, To sing the sweet chorus of 'Ha ha he!

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

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.

Shame is pride's cloak.

He who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger and better light than his perishing and mortal eye can see, does not imagine at all.

The eye sees more than the heart knows.

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.

Opposition is true friendship.

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

Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.

It is the greatest of crimes to depress true art and science.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain!