Top 472 Quotes & Sayings by William Blake - Page 4

He who shall hurt the little wren Shall never be beloved by men.

Gratitude is heaven itself.

Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones. Generalization and abstraction are the plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling. And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.

He who has suffered you to impose on him knows you.

Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.

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 who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars.

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.

The Man who never in his Mind & Thoughts travel'd to Heaven Is No Artist.

The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert, that God spoke to them; and whether they did not think at the time, that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of imposition. Isaiah answer'd, I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then persuaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote.

Man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise.

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.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty !

As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.

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

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

Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.

Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory.

To create a little flower is the labour of ages.

A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.

Energy is the only life, and is from the body; and reason is the bound or outward circumference of energy. Energy is eternal delight.

Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time's swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.

Each man must create his own system or else he is a slave to another mans

I am under the direction of messengers from Heaven daily and nightly.

How can a bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?

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 world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after death of the vegetative body.

Listen to the fool's reproach! It is a kingly title!

Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse.

God only acts and is, in existing beings or men.

The ruins of time build mansions in eternity.

Nothing is real beyond imaginative patterns men make of reality.

Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on.

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.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks: He withers all in silence, and his hand Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?

Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipp'd the Devil If I thank'd my God for worldly things.

The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.

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.

If you, who are organised by Divine Providence for spiritual communion, refuse, and bury your talent in the earth, even though you should want natural bread, sorrow and desperation pursue you through life, and after death shame and confusion of face to eternity.

Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists

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

And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification

To be an Error and to be Cast out is a part of God's Design.

One law for the lion and ox is oppression.

The cut worm forgives the plow.

Energy is an eternal delight.

He who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger and better light than his perishing and mortal eye can see, does not imagine at all.

The Errors of a Wise Man make your Rule Rather than the Perfections of a Fool.

Can I see a falling tear, And not feel my sorrow's share?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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

There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True.

Does the Eagle know what is in the pit Or wilt thou go ask the Mole? Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod, Or Love in a golden bowl?

What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death.

Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?" He replied, "All poets believe it does. And in ages of imagination, this firm persuasion removes mountains; but many are not capable of firm persuasion of anything.

If you have formed a circle to go into,Go into it yourself and see how you would do.

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.