Quotes from William Blake

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

England! awake! awake! awake! Jerusalem thy sister calls! Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death And close her from thy ancient walls?

Mans desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.

Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy? Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?

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.

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.

When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

Father, O father! what do we here In this land of unbelief and fear?

He who has few things to desire cannot have many to fear.

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. God is Jesus.

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sunrise.

All wholesome food is caught without a net or trap.

The cut worm forgives the plow.

You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.

How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?

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.

The bird a nest the spider a web man friendship.

Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.

Improvement makes strait roads: but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius.

Desperate remorse swallows the present in a quenchless rage.

Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.