WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES

English poet & painter (1757-1827)

William Blake quote

Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!

WILLIAM BLAKE

King Edward the Third


Prisons are built with stones of Law, brothels with bricks of Religion.

WILLIAM BLAKE

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


Abstinence sows sand all over
The ruddy limbs and flaming hair,
But Desire gratified
Plants fruits of life and beauty there.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Gnomic Verses


Man must & will have some religion; if he has not the religion of Jesus, he will have the religion of Satan & will erect the synagogue of Satan.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Jerusalem


A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

WILLIAM BLAKE

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


Man was made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.

WILLIAM BLAKE

"Auguries of Innocence", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript


What is now proved was once only imagined.

WILLIAM BLAKE

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


Art can never exist without Naked beauty display'd.

WILLIAM BLAKE

on his etching of the Laocoön


O Winter! bar thine adamantine doors:
The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark,
Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs,
Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

WILLIAM BLAKE

"To Winter"


What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

WILLIAM BLAKE

letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799


Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the Mole?

WILLIAM BLAKE

"Thel's Motto", The Book of Thel


I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Songs of Experience


Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
in the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

WILLIAM BLAKE

"The Tiger"


O white-robed Angel, guide my timorous hand to write as on a lofty rock with iron pen the words of truth, that all who pass may read.

WILLIAM BLAKE

"Samson", Poetical Sketches


Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose public records to be true.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Annotations to An Apology for the Bible by R. Watson


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

WILLIAM BLAKE

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.

WILLIAM BLAKE

America: A Prophecy


The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

WILLIAM BLAKE

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


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

WILLIAM BLAKE

Auguries of Innocence


What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Vala