William Blake was a poet, painter, and printmaker from England. Blake, who was mostly unknown during his lifetime, is now regarded as a key figure in the history of Romantic-era poetry and visual arts.
His prophetic compositions have been described as “the least read body of poetry in existence in proportion to its quality.” He was not just a poet, but also an engraver who had created his own technique for relief etching, which he used for the majority of his published works. In this blog post, we have shared 55 of the most famous William Blake quotes.
55 William Blake Quotes
- “Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
2. “It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
3. “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
4. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
5. “For all eternity, I forgive you and you forgive me.”
6. “Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
7. “Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”
8. “Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled.”
7. “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise”
8. “The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.”
9. “I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.”
10. “To generalize is to be an idiot.”
Famous William Blake Quotes
11. “Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.”
12. “The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
13. “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”
14. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom…You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.”
15. “He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”
16. “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”
17. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
18. “That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”
19. “The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.”
20. “A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”
Positive William Blake Quotes
21. “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”
23. “Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship’s sake.”
27. “Everything that lives, lives not alone, nor for itself.”
28. “But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.”
29. “Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.”
30. “Mercy is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”
31. “Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.”
32. “Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.”
33. “Opposition is true Friendship.”
34. “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
35. “If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
36. “Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.”
37. “Sweet babe, in thy face Soft desires I can trace, Secret joys and secret smiles, Little pretty infant wiles.”
38. “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion”
39. “If others had not been foolish, we should be so.”
40. “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is – infinite.”
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Thought-Proving William Blake Quotes
41. “As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”
42. “He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.”
43. “Great things are done when men and mountains meet; this is not done by jostling in the street.”
44. “The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”
45. “A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there’s more conversation. ”
46. “I know that this world is a world of Imagination and Vision.”
47. “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.”
48. “To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration”
49. “Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.”
50. “Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth.”
51. “Do what you will, this life’s a fiction, And it is made up of contradiction.”
52. “Every object that is loved forms the center of a paradise.”
53. “Love is the child that breathes our breath. Love is the child that scatters death.”
54. “I cannot consider death as any thing but a removing from one room to another.”
55. “The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel’d to heaven is no artist.”
William Blake is considered to be Britain’s national poet, he influenced a generation of writers and painters including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Constable. His prophetic poems have been said to form “a vital link between Heaven and Earth”.
William Blake’s most popular works include, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The Book of Urizen Songs of Innocence & Experience Songs of Experience Jerusalem: A Prophecy The Four Zoas Milton (1805) America: A Prophecy England: A Prophecy Europe: A Prophecy Europe a Poem (1793