William Blake quotes
William Blake about Philosophy, Crime, Justice
Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.
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.
Love to faults is always blind,
always is to joy inclined.
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
and breaks all chains from every mind. 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. Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish. Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth.
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. One thought fills immensity.
always is to joy inclined.
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
and breaks all chains from every mind. 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. Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish. Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth.
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. One thought fills immensity.

William Blake about Wisdom, Joy, Addiction
Also about
Inspiration, Money, Greed, Practice, Knowledge, Experiment
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. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. 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. The eye altering, alters all. The true method of knowledge is experiment.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise. He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. 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. The eye altering, alters all. The true method of knowledge is experiment.

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.
The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
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!
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!
William Blake about Advice, Understanding, Bible
Also about
Reading, Money, Greed, Criminals, Doubt, Absurd, Hesitation, Body, Soul, Cowardice
Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.
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.
If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.
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 weak in courage is strong in cunning.
William Blake about Forgiveness, Wisdom, Infinity
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
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.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you. The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled. As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.
Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you. The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled. As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.
William Blake about Sympathy, Compassion, Religion
Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief? Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion. The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. 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. I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief? Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion. The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. 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. I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
William Blake about Wisdom, Experience, Infinity
Also about
Advice, Friendship, Emotions, Enemies, Anger
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.
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
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.
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
Excessive sorrow laughs.
Excessive joy weeps.
Excessive joy weeps.
William Blake about Foolishness, Friendship, Enemies
To generalize is to be an idiot.
When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.
Opposition is true friendship.
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.
William Blake about Energy, Enthusiasm, Initiative
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
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.
William Blake about Experience, Moderation, Inspiration
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.
Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
William Blake about Inspiration, Advice, Wisdom
Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.
Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
Every harlot was a virgin once.
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.
William Blake about Imagination, Fantasy, Love
Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
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. The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does. Exuberance is beauty. The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
nor for itself hath any care,
but for another gives its ease,
and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair. The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does. Exuberance is beauty. The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.