William Blake Quotes

320 Sourced Quotes

The look of love alarms
Because 'tis filled with fire;
But the look of soft deceit
Shall win the lover's hire.

William Blake
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.

William Blake
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

William Blake
But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.

William Blake
The ancient poets animated all 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 & numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity; Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of, & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.

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
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed.

William Blake
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

William Blake
When nations grow old, the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree.

William Blake
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.

William Blake
Then old Nobodaddy aloft
Farted and belched and coughed,
And said, "I love hanging and drawing and quartering
Every bit as well as war and slaughtering."

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
I cannot consider death as anything but a removing from one room to another.

William Blake
Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.

William Blake
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

William Blake
LOVE'S SECRET Never seek to tell thy love, Love that never told can be; For the gentle wind doth move Silently, invisibly. I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart, Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears. Ah! she did depart! Soon after she was gone from me, A traveller came by, Silently, invisibly: He took her with a sigh.

William Blake
The moon like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night.

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

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

William Blake
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

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
The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations.

William Blake
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!

William Blake
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
"Pipe a song about a Lamb."
So I piped with merry cheer;
"Piper, pipe that song again."
So I piped; he wept to hear.

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
Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair.

William Blake
England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy sister calls!
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death
And close her from thy ancient walls?

William Blake
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.

William Blake
And there the lion's ruddy eyes
Shall flow with tears of gold,
And pitying the tender cries,
And walking round the fold,
Saying: "Wrath by his meekness,
And by his health, sickness,
Is driven away
From our immortal day."

William Blake
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