William Morris Quotes

Wealth is what Nature gives us and what a reasonable man can make out of the gifts of Nature for his reasonable use. The sunlight, the fresh air, the unspoiled face of the earth, food, raiment and housing necessary and decent; the storing up of knowledge of all kinds, and the power of disseminating it; means of free communication between man and man; works of art, the beauty which man creates when he is most a man, most aspiring and thoughtful — all things which serve the pleasure of people ... This is wealth. Nor can I think of anything worth having which does not come under one or other of these heads. But think, I beseech you, of the product of ... the workshop of the world, and will you not be bewildered, as I am, at the thought of the mass of things which no sane man could desire, but which our useless toil makes — and sells?

"Wilt thou not save me? once in every year This rightful form of mine that thou dost see By favour of the Goddess have I here From sunrise unto sunset given me, That some brave man may end my misery. And thou — art thou not brave? can thy heart fail, Whose eyes e'en now are weeping at my tale?

Quando infine saremo sollevati da tutto ciò, nel contesto di una rinnovata semplicità di vita, avremo tempo per pensare al nostro lavoro, questo fedele compagno quotidiano, che nessuno si azzarderà più a definire una maledizione, perché certamente allora ne saremo felici, ognuno al suo posto, senz'alcuna invidia reciproca; e nessuno sarà costretto a essere il servo di un altro uomo, mentre ciascuno rifiuterà con sdegno di essere il padrone di un altro. E a quel punto gli uomini saranno senz'altro felici nel loro lavoro, e quella felicità promuoverà per certo un'arte decorativa nobile e popolare. Quell'arte renderà le nostre strade belle come i boschi, tali da suscitare, come la vista delle montagne, un sentimento di elevazione; sarà un piacere, e un ristoro per lo spirito, non un peso, giungere in città dall'aperta campagna; l'abitazione di ogni uomo sarà bela e dignitosa, tale da rasserenarne l'animo e assisterlo nel suo lavoro. Tutte le opere umane in mezzo alle quali viviamo e che maneggiamo saranno in armonia con la natura, sensate e belle, e tuttavia sempre semplici e stimolanti, non puerili né tali da infiacchirci; perché come dai nostri edifici pubblici non mancherà alcuna bellezza o splendore che rientri nelle capacità della mente e della mano dell'uomo, così nelle abitazioni private non vi sarà alcun segno di spreco, di pompa o di arroganza, e ognuno godrà della sua parte del meglio.

...[Nature] ever bearing witness against man that he has deliberately chosen ugliness instead of beauty...

...what I mean by Socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man, neither idle nor overworked, neither brain­slack brain workers, nor heart­sick hand workers, in a word, in which all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all—the realisation at last of the meaning of the word commonwealth.

Love is enough: ho ye who seek saving, Go no further; come hither; there have been who have found it, And these know the House of Fulfilment of Craving; These know the Cup with the roses around it; These know the World's Wound and the balm that hath bound it: Cry out, the World heedeth not, "Love, lead us home!"

Telle est la position de l'art de nos jours. Il est sans défense et fragilisé au milieu de l'océan de la brutalité utilitaire.

"Love makes clear the eyes that else would never see: "Love makes blind the eyes to all but me and thee.

Que cherchons-nous à accomplir ? Changer l’organisation sociale sur laquelle repose la prodigieuse structure de l’organisation de la civilisation, qui s’est construite au cours de siècles de conflits, au sein de systèmes vieillissants ou moribonds, conflits dont l’issue fut la victoire de la civilisation moderne sur les conditions naturelles de la vie

Now shall the hard war-helm bedight with the gold
Be bereft of its plating; its polishers sleep,
They that the battle-mask erewhile should burnish:
Likewise the war-byrny, which abode in the battle
O'er break of the war-boards the bite of the irons, Crumbles after the warrior; nor may the ring'd byrny After the war-leader fare wide afield
On behalf of the heroes: nor joy of the harp is,
No game of the glee-wood; no goodly hawk now Through the hall swingeth; no more the swift horse Beateth the burg-stead. Now hath bale-quelling
A many of life-kin forth away sent.

It is the childlike part of us that produces works of the imagination. When we were children time passed so slow with us that we seemed to have time for everything.

Mastership hath many shifts whereby it striveth to keep itself alive in the world. And now hear a marvel: whereas thou sayest these two times that out of one man ye may get but one man's work, in days to come one man shall do the work of a hundred men — yea, of a thousand or more: and this is the shift of mastership that shall make many masters and many rich men.

I can see myself still myself all along the way I have gone. - Lady Abundance

I cannot suppose there is anybody here who would think it either a good life, or an amusing one, to sit with one's hands before one doing nothing - to live like a gentleman, as fools call it.

To thee, when thou didst try to conceive of them, the ways of the days to come seemed follies scarce to be thought of; yet shall they come to be familiar things, and an order by which every man liveth, ill as he liveth, so that men shall deem of them, that thus it hath been since the beginning of the world, and that thus it shall be while the world endureth... Yet in time shall this also grow old, and doubt shall creep in, because men shall scarce be able to live by that order, and the complaint of the poor shall be hearkened, no longer as a tale not utterly grievous, but as a threat of ruin, and a fear. Then shall these things, which to thee seem follies, and to the men between thee and me mere wisdom and the bond of stability, seem follies once again; yet, whereas men have so long lived by them, they shall cling to them yet from blindness and from fear; and those that see, and that have thus much conquered fear that they are furthering the real time that cometh and not the dream that faileth, these men shall the blind and the fearful mock and missay, and torment and murder: and great and grievous shall be the strife in those days, and many the failures of the wise, and too oft sore shall be the despair of the valiant; and back-sliding, and doubt, and contest between friends and fellows lacking time in the hubbub to understand each other, shall grieve many hearts and hinder the Host of the Fellowship: yet shall all bring about the end, till thy deeming of folly and ours shall be one, and thy hope and our hope; and then — the Day will have come.