William Blake

“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.”

“The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.”

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”

“I said: 'Thou thing of patches, rings,Pins, necklaces and suchlike things,Disguiser of the female form,Thou paltry, gilded poisonous worm!”

“The stars are threshed, and the souls are threshed from their husks.”

“I have no nameI am but two days old.-What shall I call thee?I happy amJoy is my name,-Sweet joy befell thee!Pretty joy!Sweet joy but two days old.Sweet joy I call thee:Thou dost smile.I sing the whileSweet joy befell thee.- "Infant Joy”

“Children of the future ageReading this indignant pageKnow that in a former timeLove, sweet love, was thought a crime”

“The moon, like a flower in heaven's high bower, with silent delight sits and smiles on the night.”

“The difference between a good artist and a bad one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal, the good one really does.”

“And did the Countenance Divine,Shine forth upon our clouded hills?And was Jerusalem builded here,Among these dark Satanic Mills?”

“The busy bee has no time for sorrow.”

“Aquel que se ata una alegría la alada vida destruye; aquel que besa la alegría según vuela vive en la aurora de la eternidad.”

“Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.”

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

“Damn braces...bless relaxes.”

“Pluck thou my flower, Oothoon the mild; Another flower shall spring, because the soul of sweet delight Can never pass away.”

“Without a use this shining woman lived - Or did she only live to be at death the food of worms.”

“Enthusiastic admiration is the first principle of knowledge and the last”

“Every harlot was a virgin once”

“La Eternidad está enamorada de las obras del tiempo.”

“Thou art a manGod is no moreThy own humanityLearn to adore”

“Than you'll see the world as it is : infinte.”

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

“Oh! why was I born with a different face? why was I not born like the rest of my race? when I look,each one starts! when I speak, I offend; then Im silent & passive & lose every friend. Then my verse I dishonour, my pictures despise, my person degrade & my temper chastise; and the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame; all my talents I bury, and dead is my fame. Im either too low or too highly prized; when elate I m envy'd, when meek Im despis'd”

“That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”

“El mejor vino es el más viejo, la mejor agua es la más nueva.”

“IV   The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of a universe would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.V   If the many become the same as the few, when possess'd, More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul, less than All cannot satisfy Man.VI   If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be his eternal lot.VII   The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite & himself Infinite.”

“What the hammer? What the Chains?In what furnace was thy brain?Where the anvil? What dread grasp?Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”

“The Learned, who strive to ascend into Heaven by means of learning, appear to Children like dead horses, when repelled by the celestial spheres.”

“Little FlyThy summers play,My thoughtless handHas brush'd away.Am not IA fly like thee?Or art not thouA man like me?For I dance And drink & sing: Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength & breath: And the want Of thought is death; Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die”

“O Rose, thou art sick.The invisible wormThat flies in the nightIn the howling stormHas found out thy bedOf crimson joy,And his dark secret loveDoes thy life destroy.”

“Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake.”

“The eye altering, alters all.”

“Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled.”

“As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”

“لترَ العالم في حبة رمل،والسماء في زهرة برية، اجمع اللامتناهي في راحة اليدوالأبدية في ساعة واحدة”

“Man has no Body distinct from his soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.”

“Pity would be no more,If we did not make somebody poor.Mercy no more could be, If all were happy as we.”

“Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory.”

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

“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.”

“The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.”

“The Garden of LoveI went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.”

“He who replies to words of doubtdoth put the light of knowledge out.”

“And did those feet in ancient timeWalk upon England's mountains green?And was the holy Lamb of GodOn England's pleasant pastures seen?And did the Countenance DivineShine forth upon our clouded hills?And was Jerusalem builded here,Among these dark Satanic Mills?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!I will not cease from Mental Fight,Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,Till we have built JerusalemIn England's green & pleasant Land.”

“How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?”

“In a wife I would desire / What in whores is always found / The lineaments of gratified desire.”

“The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is No such thing as Inspiration & that any Man of a plain Understanding may by Thieving from Others become a Mich Angelo.”

“How can the bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?How can a child, when fears annoy,But droop his tender wing,And forget his youthful spring?”