William Blake quotes

“A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation.”

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

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

“As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.”

“As we are, so we see.”

“Celebrate your existence!”

“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.”

“Expect poison from the standing water.”

“General knowledges are those knowledges that idiots possess.”

“He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity's sunrise.”

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

“I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”

“I see through my eyes, not with them.”

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

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”

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

“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.”

“Make your own rules or be a slave to another man's.”

“Mans desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.”

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”

“Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity.”

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

“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.”

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

“The naked women's body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.”

“The nakedness of woman is the work of God.”

“The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.”

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

“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.”

“The woman that does not love your frowns will never embrace your smiles.”

“There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.”

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

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

“To generalize is to be an idiot.”

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

“What is now proved was once only imagined.”

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

“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.”

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