182 quotes
Princes appear to me to be Fools Houses of Commons & Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools they seem to me to be something Else besides Human Life.
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.
Songs of Innocence (1789)
Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
Annotations to Lavater (1788)
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.
Songs of Experience (1794)
Since all the riches of this world
May be gifts from the devil and earthly kings,
I should suspect that I worshipped the devil
If I thanked my God for worldly things.
Seven summers old
Lovely Lyca told.
She had wandered long
Hearing wild birds' song.
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
Songs of Innocence (1789)
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
The Tyger (1794)
They suppose that Woman's Love is Sin; in consequence all the Loves & Graces with them are Sin.
Annotations to Lavater (1788)
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
Songs of Innocence (1789)
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)
My specter around me night and day
Like a wild beast guards my way,
My emanation far within
Weeps incessantly for my sin.
Poems from Blake's Notebook (1804)
In my Brain are studies & Chambers fill'd with books & pictures of old, which I wrote & painted in ages of Eternity before my mortal life
The Letters Of William Blake (1956)
He loves to sit and hear me sing,
Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;
Then stretches out my golden wing,
And mocks my loss of liberty.
Poetical Sketches (1783)
The Old & New Testaments are
the Great Code of Art.
I have mental joys and mental health,
Mental friends and mental wealth,
I've a wife that I love and that loves me;
I've all but riches bodily.
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.
Poems from Blake's Notebook (1791)
If you trap the moment before it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.
Poems from Blake's Notebook (1791)
When nations grow old,
the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree:
And the poor and the old
Can live upon gold,
For all are born poor.
Aged sixty-three.
On Art And Artists (1800)
The Spider sits in his labourd Web, eager watching for the Fly
Presently comes a famishd Bird & takes away the Spider
His Web is left all desolate, that his little anxious heart
So careful wove; & spread it out with sighs and weariness.