Quotes by William Blake
Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by William Blake. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. What he called his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself".
Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". A committed Christian who was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".
The person who does not believe in miracles surely
makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.
All futurity seems teeming with endless destruction never to be repelled. Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.
Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face; Terror the human form divine, And Secrecy the human dress.
Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean The children walking two and two in red and blue and green Grey headed beadles walked before with wands as white as snow Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow.
The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.
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 alone.
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.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
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 and 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.
What is it men in women do require: The lineaments of gratified desire. What is it women do in men require: The lineaments of gratified desire.
She who dwells with me whom I have loved with such communion, that no place on earth can ever be solitude to me.
If you have form'd a circle to go into,
Go into it yourself, and see how you would do.
They said this mystery never shall cease:
The priest promotes war, and the soldier peace.
Re-engrav'd time after time
Ever in their youthful prime
My designs unchang'd remain
Time may rage, but rage in vain
For above Time's troubled fountains
On the great Atlantic Mountains
In my Golden House on high
There they shine eternally.
All pictures that's painted with sense and with thought Are painted by madmen as sure as a groat; For the greater the fool in the pencil more blest, And when they are drunk they always paint best.
Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth. Now hear another: he has written all the old falsehoods.
Like a fiend in a cloud,
With howling woe,
After night I do crowd,
And with night will go;
I turn my back to the east,
From whence comforts have increased;
For light doth seize my brain
With frantic pain.
My work is visionary or imaginative. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
Knowledge of ideal beauty is not to be acquired. It is born with us. Innate ideas are in every man, born with him; theyare truly himself.
Invention depends altogether upon execution or organization; as that is right or wrong so is the invention perfect or imperfect.
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
All pray in their distress:
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is God, our father dear:
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is Man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew.
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too.
Without contraries there is no progression.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors.
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.
And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.
Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds.
But to go to school in a summer morn, O! It drives all joy away; Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay.
Mere enthusiasm is the all in all.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Mere enthusiasm is the all in all... Passion and expression are beauty itself.
How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?
How have you left the ancient love That bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!
Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves the feet of angels bright; unseen they pour blessing, and joy without ceasing, on each bud and blossom, and each sleeping bosom.
Such, such were the joys
When we all, girls and boys,
In our youth time were seen
On the Echoing Green.
Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing, And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring; And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church, Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
Poetry fettered, fetters the human race.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
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.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
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.
Innate ideas are in every man, born with him; they are truly himself. The man who says that we have no innate ideas must be a fool and knave, having no conscience or innate science.
Abstinence sows sand all over The ruddy limbs and flaming hair, But desire gratified Plants fruits of life and beauty there.
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive.
Quotes by William Blake are featured in:
Forgiveness Quotes
Friendship Quotes
Gratitude Quotes
Life Quotes
Perseverance Quotes
Time Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
Sunflower Quotes
Paradise Quotes
Love Quotes
Man Quotes