William Blake Quotes

"He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

- "Auguries of Innocence

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.

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

Shame is Prides cloke.

We are here to learn to endure the beams of love.

Every harlot was a virgin once

May God us keep
From Single vision
and Newton's sleep.

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

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.

The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.

My work is visionary or imaginative. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care...

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.

But to go to school in a summer morn,
O! It drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time's swiftness/ Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.