William Blake
Quotations

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.

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.

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

Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public RECORDS to be true.

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.

Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.

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.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.

The foundation of empire is art & science. Remove them or degrade them, & the empire is no more.

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

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.

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

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

Acts themselves alone are history. Tell me the acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish! All that is not action is not worth reading.

Every harlot was a virgin once.

Thinking as I do that the Creator of this world is a very cruel being, & being a worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: "the Son, O how unlike the Father!" First God Almighty comes with a thump on the head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.

You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.

The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's arse.

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 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.

Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.

What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

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

Opposition is true friendship.

Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion.

Some say that happiness is not good for mortals, & they ought to be answered that sorrow is not fit for immortals & is utterly useless to any one; a blight never does good to a tree, & if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit, let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.

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

One thought fills immensity.

The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.

When I tell any truth it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those who do.

As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.

William Blake at Amazon

MemorableQuotations.com

Memorable Quotations:
Artists of the Past (Kindle Book)

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers of the Past
at Amazon

MemorableQuotations.com

Memorable Quotations: Poets (A - C)

Memorable Quotations: Poets (D - F)

Memorable Quotations: Poets (G - K)

Memorable Quotations: Poets (L - N)

Memorable Quotations: Poets (O - R)

Memorable Quotations: Poets (S - Z)

Memorable Quotations: Jewish Writers

Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (A - H)

Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (I - P)

Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (Q - Z)

Memorable Quotations: Abolitionists

Memorable Quotations: Actors (A - L)

Memorable Quotations: Actors (M - Z)

Memorable Quotations: African-American Writers

Memorable Quotations: The Algonquin Wits

Memorable Quotations: America's Founding Fathers

Books by Carol Dingle

Books by Diana Dell

Memorable Quotations: Short Story Writers (A - L)

Memorable Quotations: Short Story Writers (M - Z)

Memorable Quotations: Jewish Women Writers

Chinese Proverbs

English Proverbs

Irish Proverbs

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers (A - B)

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers (C - F)

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers (G - K)

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers (L - O)

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers (P - Z)

Memorable Quotations:
Philosophers of Western Civilization

Memorable Quotations:
English Writers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
Jewish Writers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
French Writers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
Irish Writers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
American Women Writers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
Humorists, Wits, and Satirists of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
Famous Teachers of the Past

Memorable Quotations:
Massachusetts Writers of the Past

Memories Are Like Clouds

A Saigon Party:
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories

Memorable Quotations: Reformers

Memorable Quotations: Religious Leaders

Memorable Quotations: Restoration Dramatists

Memorable Quotations: Romans

Memorable Quotations: Royalty

Memorable Quotations: Russian Writers

Memorable Quotations: Saints

Memorable Quotations: Science Fiction Writers

Memorable Quotations: Scientists

Memorable Quotations: Scots

Memorable Quotations: Scottish Writers

Memorable Quotations: Screenwriters

Memorable Quotations: Singers

Memorable Quotations: Social Workers

Memorable Quotations: Socialites

Memorable Quotations: Sociologists

Memorable Quotations: Songwriters

Memorable Quotations: Spanish Writers

Memorable Quotations: Speechwriters

Memorable Quotations: Sports Figures

Memorable Quotations: Statesmen

MemorableQuotations.com
http://www.memorablequotations.com