English poet & painter (1757-1827)
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity, a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Divine Image", Songs of Innocence
God appears and god is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
One thought fills immensity.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Nurse's Song", Songs of Innocence
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.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"A Vision of the Last Judgement"
Eternity is before me like a dark lamp.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain'd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou mayest rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"To Autumn"
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devils' party without knowing it.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Voice of the Devil", The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
If a thing loves, it is infinite.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Swedenborg
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Poems from Blake's Notebook
Every Harlot was a Virgin once.
WILLIAM BLAKE
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers.
WILLIAM BLAKE
letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799
Forgiveness of enemies can only come upon their repentance.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Lavater
The sword sung on the barren heath,
The sickle in the fruitful field;
The sword he sung a song of death,
But could not make the sickle yield.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Love to Faults", Poems from Blake's Notebook