William Blake
from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
- In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in
winter enjoy.
- Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
- The road of excess leads to the palace of
wisdom.
- Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted
by Incapacity.
- He who desires but acts not, breeds
pestilence.
- The cut worm forgives the plow.
- Dip him in the river who loves water.
- A fool sees not the same tree that a wise
man sees.
- He whose face gives no light,
shall never become a star.
- Eternity is in love with the productions
of time.
- The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
- The hours of folly are measur'd
by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
- All wholesome food is caught without a net
or a trap.
- Bring out number weight & measure in a
year of dearth.
- No bird soars too high, if he soars with
his own wings.
- A dead body revenges not injuries.
- The most sublime act is to set another
before you.
- If the fool would persist in his folly he
would become wise.
- Folly is the cloke
of knavery.
- Shame
is Pride’s
cloke.
- Prisons are built with stones of Law,
Brothels with bricks of Religion.
- The pride of the peacock is the glory of
God.
- The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
- The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of
God.
- The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
- Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy
weeps.
- The roaring of lions, the howling of
wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are
portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
- The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
- Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
- Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman
the fleece of the sheep.
- The bird a nest, the spider a web, man
friendship.
- The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen
frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
- What is now proved was once, only imagin'd.
- The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit:
watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse,
the elephant, watch the fruits.
- The cistern contains; the fountain
overflows.
- One
thought, fills immensity.
- Always be ready to speak your mind, and a
base man will avoid you.
- Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
- The eagle never lost so much time, as when
he submitted to learn of the crow.
- The fox provides for himself, but God
provides for the lion.
- Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat
in the evening. Sleep in the night.
- He who has suffer'd
you to impose on him knows you.
- As the plow
follows words, so God rewards prayers.
- The tygers of
wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
- Expect poison from the standing water.
- You never know what is
enough unless you know what is more than enough.
- Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
- The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the
mouth of water, the beard of earth.
- The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
- The apple tree never asks the beech how he
shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
- The thankful receiver bears a plentiful
harvest.
- If others had not been foolish, we should
be so.
- The soul of sweet delight,
can never be defil'd.
- When thou seest
an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius, lift
up thy head!
- As the caterpillar chooses the fairest
leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest
joys.
- To create a little flower is the labour of
ages.
- Damn,
braces: Bless relaxes.
- The best wine is the oldest, the best
water the newest.
- Prayers plow
not! Praises reap not!
- Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
- The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the
genitals Beauty, the hands & feet Proportion.
- As the air to a bird of the sea to a fish,
so is contempt to the contemptible.
- The crow wish'd
every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white.
- Exuberance
is Beauty.
- If the lion was advised by the fox, he
would be cunning.
- Improvement makes strait roads, but the
crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
- Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than
nurse unacted desires.
- Where man is not nature is barren.
- Truth can never be told so as to be
understood, and not be believ'd.