William Blake
Expect poison from the standing water.Collection: Rain
A musician, an artist, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.Collection: Music
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.Collection: Horse
I am going to that country which I have all my life wished to see.Collection: Death
What has reasoning to do with painting?Collection: Painting
How have you left the ancient love That bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!Collection: Love
Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroy'd it; a Warlike State never can produce Art. It will Rob & Plunder & accumulate into one place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell & Criticize, but not Make.Collection: Art
He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out.Collection: Light
Painters are noted for being dissipated and wild.Collection: Painter
General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocite, flatterer.Collection: Hypocrite
Auguries of innocence "The emmet's inch and eagle's mile Make lame philosophy to smile. He who doubts from what he sees Will ne'er believe, do what you please.Collection: Philosophy
To Mercy Pity Peace and Love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy Pity Peace and Love Is God our father dear. And Mercy Pity Peace and Love Is Man his child and care. Then every man of every clime That prays in his distress Prays to the human form divine: Love Mercy Pity Peace. And all must love the human form In heathen, Turk, or Jew. Where Mercy, Love and Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.Collection: Love
The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.Collection: Men
All the destruction in Christian Europe has arisen from deism, which is natural religion.Collection: Christian
Rhetoric completes the tools of learning. Dialectic zeros in on the logic of things, of particular systems of thought or subjects. Rhetoric takes the next grand step and brings all these subjects together into one whole.Collection: Together
The child's toys and the old man's reasons are the fruits of two seasons.Collection: Children
Acts themselves alone are history, and these are neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire, Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is not worth reading.Collection: Reading
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.Collection: Wrath
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed or governed their passions, but because they have cultivate their understandings.Collection: Passion
But if at church they would give some ale. And a pleasant fire our souls to regale. We'd sing and we'd pray all the live long day, Nor ever once from the church to stray.Collection: Beer
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.Collection: Gratitude
Death is terrible, tho' borne on angels' wings!Collection: Angel
Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm.Collection: Mother
To my eye Rubens' colouring is most contemptible. His shadows are a filthy brown somewhat the colour of excrement.Collection: Eye
Never seek to tell thy love; Love that never told can be. For the gentle wind does move silently.. invisibly.Collection: Moving
He who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger and better light than his perishing and mortal eye can see, does not imagine at all.Collection: Eye
If you have formed a circle to go into,Go into it yourself and see how you would do.Collection: Circles
THE POISON TREE 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. And I water'd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears; And I sunned it with my smiles And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright; And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine, And into my garden stole When the night had veil'd the pole: In the morning glad I see My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.Collection: Morning
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.Collection: Angel
As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity, I collected some of their Proverbs.Collection: Angel
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.Collection: Wine
The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.Collection: Running
Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.Collection: Future
The ruins of time build mansions in eternity.Collection: Time
Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise.Collection: Forgiveness
Nothing is real beyond imaginative patterns men make of reality.Collection: Real
Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification.Collection: Angel
And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratificationCollection: Genius
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand.Collection: Nature
Then my verse I dishonor, my pictures despise, my person degrade and my temper chastise; and the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame; and my talents I bury, and dead is my fame.Collection: Despair
The Britons (say historians) were naked, civilized men, learned, studious, abstruse in thought and contemplation; naked, simple, plain in their acts and manners; wiser than after ages.Collection: Simple
Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls Upon our love-sick land that mourns for thee.Collection: Kissing
When the voices of children are heard on the greenAnd laughing is heard on the hill,My heart is at rest within my breastAnd everything else is still.Collection: Children
When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!Collection: Eagles