William Blake Quotes | GloryQuotes

William Blake Quotes About Art

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.

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.

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

Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.

Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.

The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.

William Blake Quotes About Wisdom

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

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

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

The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.

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.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

More Quotes by William Blake

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

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.

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?

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

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

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.

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise.

Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.

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

Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

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

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

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

Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.

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

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

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

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.

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire.

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

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.

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled.

Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.

Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

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

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

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

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.

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.

I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.

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.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

Browse 80 quotes attributed to William Blake, listed in the source data as a English Poet, organized around themes such as Art, Wisdom, Love. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.