William Blake Quotes

320 Sourced Quotes

If the Sun and Moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

William Blake
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.

William Blake
I heard an Angel singing; When the day was springing, Mercy, Pity, Peace; Is the world's release.

William Blake
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?

William Blake
The atoms of Democritus
And Newton's particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

William Blake
When Sir Joshua Reynolds died
All Nature was degraded:
The King dropped a tear into the Queen's ear;
And all his pictures faded.

William Blake
I have labour'd hard indeed, & have been borne on angel's wings. Till we meet I beg of God our Saviour to be with you & me, & yours & mine. Pray give my & my wife's love to Mrs Butts & Family, & believe me to remain.

William Blake
Seeing this False Christ, in fury and passion
I made my voice heard all over the nation.
…
I am sure this Jesus will not do
Either for Englishman or Jew.

William Blake
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up thy head!

William Blake
This life's dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.

William Blake
Some will say, Is not God alone the Prolific? I answer, God only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.

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
The Questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to Reply.

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

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
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
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
In the morning glad I see,
My foe outstretched beneath the tree

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
Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

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

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

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

William Blake