Top 472 Quotes & Sayings by William Blake - Page 2

Every harlot was a virgin once.

Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

Lives in eternity's sun rise.

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.

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

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!

Christ's crucifix shall be made an excuse for executing criminals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.

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.

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 a thing loves, it is infinite.

The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.

Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare.

Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.

We are here to learn to endure the beams of love

The busy bee has no time for sorrow.

Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine.

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them.

He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God.

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.

Gratitude, in itself, is heaven.

The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.

The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated [i.e. mortal] body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the eternal realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.

You become what you behold.

You've always had the power right there in your shoes, you just had to learn it for yourself.

I see through my eyes, not with them.

Each man is haunted until his humanity awakens.

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.

As we are, so we see.

Mans desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.

In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.

A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation.

Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?

He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity's sunrise.

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.

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.

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

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

Expect poison from the standing water.

Knowledge is Life with wings

Mysteries are not to be solved. They eye goes blind when it only wants to see why.

The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.

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.

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

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

There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.

The nakedness of woman is the work of God.

Celebrate your existence!

Poetry, Painting & Music, the three Powers in man of conversing with Paradise, which the flood did not sweep away.

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.

The Woman that does not love your Frowns Will never embrace your smiles.

There is a smile of love, And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles In which these two smiles meet.