William Blake (born 28 November 1757, Soho, London, England – died 12 August 1827, Charing Cross, London, England) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".
Top 10 Most Famous William Blake Quotes
To see a World in a grain of sand, And a Heaven in a wild flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour.In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.Poetry, Painting & Music, the three Powers in man of conversing with Paradise, which the flood did not sweep away.The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.Gratitude is heaven itself.
8 William Blake Quotes About Love
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.Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.Great things are done when men and mountains meet.Eternity is in love with the productions of time.Love is weak when there is more doubt than there is trust, but love is most strong when you learn to trust even with all the doubts. If a thing loves, it is infinite.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.I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
11 William Blake Quotes About Imagination
The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.
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
What is now proved was once only imagined.If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.The man who never in his mind and thoughts traveled to heaven is no artist.The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.One thought fills immensity.The eye altering alters all.
16 William Blake Quotes About Wisdom
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.The most sublime act is to set another before you.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.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.In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.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.To generalize is to be an idiot.Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.The true method of knowledge is an experiment.A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.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.
5 William Blake Quotes About Friendship
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.Opposition is true friendship.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.It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
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.
And I water'd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears; And I sunnéd it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright; And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole, When the night had veil'd the pole: In the morning glad I see My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.
William Blake
3 William Blake Quotes on God and Christianity
God appears, and God is Light, to those poor souls who dwell in Night; but does a Human Form display to those who dwell in realms of Day.The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?
4 William Blake Quotes About Death
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, and not seek for kind relief?Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire.Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
20 William Blake About Life That Make You Think
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.Exuberance is beauty.He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.Do what you will, this world’s a fiction and is made up of contradiction.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.Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?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.To some people a tree is something so incredibly beautiful that it brings tears to the eyes. To others it is just a green thing that stands in the way.A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.Christ’s crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.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.Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not breeds pestilence.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.Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night.I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!This life’s dim windows of the soul Distorts the heavens from pole to pole And leads you to believe a lie When you see with, not through, the eye.
