William Blake Quotes

The human mind cannot go beyond the gift of God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that art can go beyond the finest specimens of art that are now in the world is not knowing what art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the spirit.

General knowledges are those knowledges that idiots possess.

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

I am going to that country which I have all my life wished to see.

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. 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. How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration

A musician, an artist, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.

Degrade first the Arts if you'd Mankind Degrade. Hire Idiots to Paint with cold light & hot shade: Give high Price for the worst, leave the best in disgrace, And with Labours of Ignorance fill every place.

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

thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.

I see through my eyes, not with them.

Although wine when it is read somewhat lacks the savour of wine when it is drunk, wine remains a very pleasant thing both to read about and to chat about.

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

Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

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

If you, who are organised by Divine Providence for spiritual communion, refuse, and bury your talent in the earth, even though you should want natural bread, sorrow and desperation pursue you through life, and after death shame and confusion of face to eternity.

The fox condemns the trap, not himself.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

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

Gratitude is heaven itself.

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

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

Nothing is real beyond imaginative patterns men make of reality.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

The worship of God is, Honouring his gifts in other men each according to his genius, and loving the greatest men best; those who envy or calumniate great men hate God, for there is no other God.

Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?" He replied, "All poets believe it does. And in ages of imagination, this firm persuasion removes mountains; but many are not capable of firm persuasion of anything.

Little fly, thy summer's play My thoughtless hand has brushed away. Am not I a fly like thee? Or art not thou a man like me? For I dance and drink and sing, Till some blind hand shall brush my wing!

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

Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

You throw the sand against the wind and the wind blows it back again.

Kill not the moth nor butterfly, For the Last Judgement draweth nigh.

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

Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a Lamb." So I piped with merry cheer; "Piper, pipe that song again." So I piped; he wept to hear.

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.

Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse.

Joy and woe are woven fine.

The most sublime act is to set another before you.

Children of the future age Reading this indignant page Know that in a former time Love, sweet love, was thought a crime

When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

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

Ah, sunflower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the sun, Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller's journey is done; Where the youth pined away with desire And the pale virgin shrouded in snow Arise from their graves, and aspire Where my sunflower wishes to go.

I am under the direction of messengers from Heaven daily and nightly.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

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

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

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.