William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker of the Romantic Age. Born in London, Blake displayed artistic talent from a young age. He is renowned for his visionary and mystical works that explore themes of spirituality, imagination, and the human condition. Blake’s illuminated books, notably “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” combined poetry with original artwork, showcasing his innovative integration of text and image. A radical thinker, Blake challenged societal norms, criticizing institutions like the church and monarchy while advocating for social justice and individual freedom. Despite facing financial difficulties and limited recognition in his lifetime, Blake’s creativity, originality, and profound insights have earned him posthumous acclaim as one of the greatest poets and artists in English literature. His legacy continues to inspire and influence generations of artists and writers.
William Blake Quotes
1. “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.”
— William Blake
2. “I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
— William Blake
3. “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
— William Blake
4. “Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
— William Blake
5. “What is now proved was once only imagined.”
— William Blake
6. “Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain!”
— William Blake
7. “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
8. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
— William Blake
9. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty !”
— William Blake
10. “You become what you behold.”
— William Blake
11. “He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.”
— William Blake
12. “Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.”
— William Blake
13. “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”
— William Blake
14. “The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.”
— William Blake
15. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
— William Blake
16. “Gratitude is heaven itself.”
— William Blake
17. “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
18. “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.”
— William Blake
19. “In your own bosom you bear your heaven and earth, And all you behold, though it appears without, It is within, in your imagination, Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.”
— William Blake
20. “It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
— William Blake
21. “The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.”
— William Blake
22. “The true method of knowledge is experiment.”
— William Blake
23. “Execution is the chariot of genius.”
— William Blake
24. “Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night.”
— William Blake
25. “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
— William Blake
26. “The busy bee has no time for sorrow.”
— William Blake
27. “The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
— William Blake
28. “Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?”
— William Blake
29. “No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
— William Blake
30. “Energy is eternal delight.”
— William Blake
31. “Each man must create his own system or else he is a slave to another mans.”
— William Blake
32. “Knowledge is Life with wings.”
— William Blake
33. “Gratitude is heaven itself; there could be no heaven without gratitude.”
— William Blake
34. “Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.”
— William Blake
35. “For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.”
— William Blake
36. “And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.”
— William Blake
37. “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
— William Blake
38. “A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage.”
— William Blake
39. “One Power alone makes a Poet: Imagination. The Divine Vision.”
— William Blake
40. “I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.”
— William Blake
41. “As a man is, so he sees.”
— William Blake
42. “The eye altering, alters all.”
— William Blake
43. “Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity.”
— William Blake
44. “A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.”
— William Blake
45. “Nature has no outline. Imagination has.”
— William Blake
46. “He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”
— William Blake
47. “How can a bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?”
— William Blake
48. “Love is weak when there is more doubt than there is trust, but love is most strong when you learn to trust even with all the doubts. If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
— William Blake
49. “I see through my eyes, not with them.”
— William Blake
50. “Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.”
— William Blake
51. “Without Unceasing Practice nothing can be done. Practice is Art. If you leave off you are lost.”
— William Blake
52. “To generalize is to be an idiot.”
— William Blake
53. “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”
— William Blake
54. “Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.”
— William Blake
55. “Do what you will, this world’s a fiction and is made up of contradiction.”
— William Blake
56. “Celebrate your existence!”
— William Blake
57. “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
58. “Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine.”
— William Blake
59. “The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.”
— William Blake
60. “A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”
— William Blake
61. “God is the poetic genius in each of us.”
— William Blake
62. “Work up imagination to the state of vision.”
— William Blake
63. “Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.”
— William Blake
64. “The naked women’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.”
— William Blake
65. “I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill.”
— William Blake
66. “We are led to believe a lie When we see not through the eye.”
— William Blake
67. “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
68. “Man was made for joy and woe Then when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go. Joy and woe are woven fine A clothing for the soul to bind.”
— William Blake
69. “Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire.”
— William Blake
70. “The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity, too great for the eye of man.”
— William Blake
71. “Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy.”
— William Blake
72. “For the Eye altering alters all; The Senses roll themselves in fear And the flat Earth becomes a Ball.”
— William Blake
73. “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
74. “They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.”
— William Blake
75. “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.”
— William Blake
76. “The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.”
— William Blake
77. “Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with ignorance…”
— William Blake
78. “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
79. “The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”
— William Blake
80. “I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.”
— William Blake
81. “The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
— William Blake
82. “Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.”
— William Blake
83. “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
84. “For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.”
— William Blake
85. “Mans desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.”
— William Blake
86. “To the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
— William Blake
87. “He who has few things to desire cannot have many to fear.”
— William Blake
88. “If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.”
— William Blake
89. “To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess.”
— William Blake
90. “He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.”
— William Blake
91. “When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.”
— William Blake
92. “God only acts and is, in existing beings or men.”
— William Blake
93. “Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.”
— William Blake
94. “Expect poison from the standing water.”
— William Blake
95. “Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”
— William Blake
96. “The cut worm forgives the plow.”
— William Blake
97. “Opposition is true friendship.”
— William Blake
98. “If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
— William Blake
99. “Time is the Mercy of Eternity.”
— William Blake
100. “The Woman that does not love your Frowns Will never embrace your smiles.”
— William Blake
101. “The hand of Vengeance found the Bed To which the Purple Tyrant fled The iron hand crush’d the tyrant’s head And became Tyrant in his stead.”
— William Blake
102. “The ruins of time build mansions in eternity.”
— William Blake
103. “To some people a tree is something so incredibly beautiful that it brings tears to the eyes. To others it is just a green thing that stands in the way.”
— William Blake
104. “In every cry of every man, In every infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.”
— William Blake
105. “I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.”
— William Blake
106. “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
— William Blake
107. “One thought fills immensity.”
— William Blake
108. “Imitation is criticism.”
— William Blake
109. “How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring?”
— William Blake
110. “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand.”
— William Blake
111. “Children of the future age Reading this indignant page Know that in a former time Love, sweet love, was thought a crime.”
— William Blake
112. “Exuberance is beauty.”
— William Blake
113. “Everything is beautiful in its own way. Exuberance is beauty.”
— William Blake
114. “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.”
— William Blake
115. “The eye sees more than the heart knows.”
— William Blake
116. “First thought is best in Art, second in other matters.”
— William Blake
117. “I cry, Love! Love! Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain wind!”
— William Blake
118. “Without contraries there is no progression.”
— William Blake
119. “I give you the end of a golden string, Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate Built in Jerusalem’s wall.”
— William Blake
120. “A dog starved at his master’s gate Predicts the ruin of the state.”
— William Blake
121. “Drive your cart and plow over the bones of the dead.”
— William Blake
122. “When thought is closed in caves, then love shall show its root in deepest hell.”
— William Blake
123. “You throw the sand against the wind and the wind blows it back again.”
— William Blake
124. “The fox condemns the trap, not himself.”
— William Blake
125. “Wisdom is sold in a desolate marketplace where none can come to buy.”
— William Blake
126. “If you have form’d a circle to go into, Go into it yourself, and see how you would do. They said this mystery never shall cease: The priest promotes war, and the soldier peace.”
— William Blake
127. “The Goddess Fortune is the devil’s servant, ready to kiss any one’s ass.”
— William Blake
128. “The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
— William Blake
129. “He who will not bend to Love must be subdu’d by Fear.”
— William Blake
130. “The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”
— William Blake
131. “Such, such were the joys When we all, girls and boys, In our youth time were seen On the Echoing Green.”
— William Blake
132. “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”
— William Blake
133. “There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find.”
— William Blake
134. “Mere enthusiasm is the all in all.”
— William Blake
135. “Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity.”
— William Blake
136. “Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
— William Blake
137. “The human mind cannot go beyond the gift of God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that art can go beyond the finest specimens of art that are now in the world is not knowing what art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the spirit.”
— William Blake
138. “Nothing is real beyond imaginative patterns men make of reality.”
— William Blake
139. “And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen?”
— William Blake
140. “You’ve always had the power right there in your shoes, you just had to learn it for yourself.”
— William Blake
141. “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
142. “If Christianity was morality, Socrates would be the Saviour.”
— William Blake
143. “Where mercy, love, and pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.”
— William Blake
144. “The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”
— William Blake
145. “What is it men in women do require: The lineaments of gratified desire. What is it women do in men require: The lineaments of gratified desire.”
— William Blake
146. “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
147. “For all eternity, I forgive you and you forgive me.”
— William Blake
148. “Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.”
— William Blake
149. “The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.”
— William Blake
150. “He who makes his law a curse, by his own law shall surely die.”
— William Blake
