William Blake Quotes & Sayings

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

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. — William Blake

Auguries of innocence
He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.
He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons. — William Blake

Make your own rules or be a slave to another man's. — William Blake

Prepare your hearts for Death's cold hand! prepare
Your souls for flight, your bodies for the earth;
Prepare your arms for glorious victory;
Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God!
Prepare, prepare! — William Blake

A DIVINE IMAGE Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face; Terror the human form divine, And Secresy the human dress. The human dress is forged iron, The human form a fiery forge, The human face a furnace sealed, The human heart its hungry gorge. — William Blake

God is the poetic genius in each of us. — William Blake

The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. — William Blake

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,Dreaming o'er the joys of night.Sleep, sleep: in thy sleepLittle sorrows sit and weep. — William Blake

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. — William Blake

It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go. — William Blake

The spirits of the air live on the smells Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round The gardens, or sits singing in the trees ... — William Blake

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

How sweet I roamed from field to field, And tasted all the summer's pride, Till I the prince of love beheld, Who in the sunny beams did glide! — William Blake

You become what you behold. — William Blake

And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love — William Blake

The nakedness of woman is the work of God. — William Blake

Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroy'd it; a Warlike State never can produce Art. It will Rob & Plunder & accumulate into one place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell & Criticize, but not Make. — William Blake

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' ... — William Blake

A happy fly
If I live
Or if I die — William Blake

My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child, But I am black as if bereaved of light. — William Blake

O thou who passest through our valleys in Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat That flames from their large nostrils! Thou, O Summer, Oft pitchest here thy golden tent, and oft Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair. — William Blake

To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration — William Blake

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh
And thy maker is not by;
Think not thou canst weep a tear
And thy maker is not near. — William Blake

The modest Rose puts forth a Thorn.
The humble Sheep a threat'ning Horn.
While the Lily white shall in love delight.
Nor a Thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright. — William Blake

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. — William Blake

The fox condemns the trap, not himself — William Blake

Gratitude, in itself, is heaven. — William Blake

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. — William Blake

Every mortal loss is an immortal gain. — William Blake

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

Sweet babe, in thy face Soft desires I can trace, Secret joys and secret smiles, Little pretty infant wiles. — William Blake

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

There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True ... — William Blake

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. — William Blake

Do what you will, this life's a fiction, And it is made up of contradiction. — William Blake

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

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find — William Blake

The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's ass. — William Blake

If Christianity was morality, Socrates would be the Saviour. — William Blake

Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence. — William Blake

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. — William Blake

On no other ground
Can I sow my seed
Without tearing up
Some stinking weed. — William Blake

The cut worm forgives the plow — William Blake

Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven,I oft have wished for Hell for ease from Heaven. — William Blake

I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand. — William Blake

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. — William Blake

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out. — William Blake

The inquiry in England is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a virtuous ass and obedient to noblemen's opinions in art and science. If he is, he is a good man. If not, he must be starved. — William Blake

Time is the Mercy of Eternity — William Blake

If a thing loves, it is infinite. — William Blake

In your own bosom you bear your heaven and earth,
And all you behold, though it appears without,
It is within, in your imagination,
Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. — William Blake

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. — William Blake

Imitation is criticism. — William Blake

The eye altering, alters all. — William Blake

Vision is the end of religion. — William Blake

General knowledges are those knowledges that idiots possess. — William Blake

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills? — William Blake

Every harlot was a virgin once — William Blake

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

The Sick Rose O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. — William Blake

Embraces are comminglings from the head even to the feet, And not a pompous high priest entering by a secret place. — William Blake

It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted. — William Blake

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

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees
Whose ears have heard,
The Holy Word,
That walk'd among the ancient trees.

Calling the lapsed Soul
And weeping in the evening dew:
That might controll,
The starry pole;
And fallen fallen light renew!

O Earth O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass;
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.

Turn away no more:
Why wilt thou turn away
The starry floor
The watry shore
Is giv'n thee till the break of day.

- "Introduction to the Songs of Experience — William Blake

The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure. — William Blake

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

Let men do their duty and the women will be such wonders; the female lives from the light of the male: see a male's female dependants, you know the man. — William Blake

The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it. — William Blake

When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep. — William Blake

Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public Records to be true. — William Blake

The ruins of time build mansions in eternity. — William Blake

Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read'st black where I read white. — William Blake

I am more famed in Heaven for my works than I could well conceive. In my brain are studies & chambers filled with books & pictures of old, which I wrote and painted in ages of Eternity before my mortal life; and whose works are the delight & study of Archangels. Why, then, should I be anxious about the riches or fame of mortality? — William Blake

Ah Sun-flower! 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 Sun-flower wishes to go. — William Blake

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. — William Blake

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door. — William Blake

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! — William Blake

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

Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification. — William Blake

The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is No such thing as Inspiration & that any Man of a plain Understanding may by Thieving from Others become a Mich Angelo. — William Blake

The Britons (say historians) were naked, civilized men, learned, studious, abstruse in thought and contemplation; naked, simple, plain in their acts and manners; wiser than after ages. — William Blake

A dog starv'd at the master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A horse misus'd upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear,
A skylark wounded on the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing. — William Blake

Forgive what you do not approve & love me for this energetic exertion of my talent — William Blake

THE POISON TREE
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 sunned it with my 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

He who makes his law a curse, by his own law shall surely die. — William Blake

Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed. — William Blake

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 cloth seize my brain With frantic pain. — William Blake

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt. — William Blake

Excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or graver into my hand. — William Blake

None but blockheads copy each other. — William Blake

Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse. — William Blake

The child's toys and the old man's reasons are the fruits of two seasons. — William Blake

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. — William Blake

What the hammer? What the Chains?
In what furnace was thy brain?
Where the anvil? What dread grasp?
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? — William Blake

Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled. — William Blake

For everything exists and not one sigh nor smile nor tear, one hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away. — William Blake

Harmony of colouring is destructive of art? it is like the smile of a fool. — William Blake

When the voices of children are heard on the greenAnd laughing is heard on the hill,My heart is at rest within my breastAnd everything else is still. — William Blake

Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception, he percieves more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover — William Blake