A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.
– William Blake
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.
– William Blake
As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.
– William Blake
Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire.
– William Blake
Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.
– William Blake
Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?
– William Blake
Embraces are cominglings from the head even to the feet, and not a pompous high priest entering by a secret place.
– William Blake
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
– William Blake
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
– William Blake
Every harlot was a virgin once.
– William Blake
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
– William Blake
Exuberance is beauty.
– William Blake
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.
– William Blake
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
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
I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!
– William Blake
I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
– 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
If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.
– William Blake
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
– William Blake
One thought fills immensity.
– William Blake
Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.
– William Blake
Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
– William Blake
The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
– William Blake
The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss any one's ass.
– William Blake
The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
– William Blake
The inquiry in England is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a virtuous ass and obedient to noblemen's opinions in art and science. If he is, he is a good man. If not, he must be starved.
– William Blake
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
– William Blake
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
– William Blake
The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
– William Blake
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
– William Blake
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
– William Blake
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
– William Blake
Thinking as I do that the Creator of this world is a very cruel being, and being a worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: the Son, O how unlike the Father! First God Almighty comes with a thump on the head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.
– William Blake
Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache; do be my enemy-for friendship's sake.
– William Blake
To generalize is to be an idiot.
– William Blake
Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.
– William Blake
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.
– 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
What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
– William Blake
What is now proved was once only imagined.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!
– William Blake
Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
– William Blake
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.
– 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
Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.
– William Blake
I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.
– William Blake
Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with Ignorance.
– 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
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.
– William Blake
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
– William Blake
The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.
– William Blake
Opposition is true friendship.
– William Blake
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.
– William Blake
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
– William Blake
Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
– William Blake
Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.