William Blake

-The road of excess leds to the palace of wisdom.
-Prudence is a rich,ugly maid courted by Incapacity.
-He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
-A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
-The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
-If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
-The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
-When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius, lift up thy head!
-Prayers plow not! Praises reap not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
-Where man is not, nature is barren.
-Opposition is true Friendship.
-I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments. Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.
-One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.
-For every thing that lives is Holy.
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790-1793)



-Degrade first the Arts if you'd Mankind Degrade.
-Empire follows Art & Not Vice Versa as Englishmen suppose.
-Art is First in Intellectuals & Ought to be First in Nations.
-Execution is the Chariot of Genius.
-As the Eye, Such the Object.
-All but Names of Persons & Places is Invention both in Poetry & Painting.
-Genius has no Error.
-Man varies from Man more than Animal from Animal of different Species.
-He who can be bound down is No Genius. Genius cannot be Bound.
(Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses, 1808)



-Father & Mother, I return from flames of fire tried & pure & white.
(Milton, 1804-1808)



-This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity.
-Every thing is Eternal.
-Poetry, Painting & Music, the three Powers in Man of conversing with Paradise.
-Moral Virtues do not Exist.
-The Modern Church Crucifies Christ with the Head Downwards.
-The Last Judgment is an Overwhelming of Bad Art & Science.
-I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight. I look thro' it & not with it.
(A Vision of the Last Judgment, 1810)



-All Genius varies Thus. Devils are various. Angels are all alike.
-Imagination or the Human Eternal Body in Every Man.
-Imagination or the Divine Body in Every Man.
(Annotations to Berkeley-Note on a pencil Drawning of Nine Grotesque Heads, 1819)




-Art Degraded, Imagination Denied, War Governed the Nations.
-A Poet, A Painter, a Musician, an Architect: the Man or Woman who is not
one of these is not a Christian.
-The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination, that is, God himself.
-Art can never exist without Naked Beauty displayed.
-For every Pleasure Money is Useless.
-Art is the Tree of Life. God is Jesus.
Science is the Tree of Death.
-No secresy in Art.
-The unproductive Man is not a Christian, much less the Destroyer.
(The Laocoon, 1820)



-One Power alone makes a Poet: Imagination, the Divine Vision.
(Annotations to "Poems" by William Wordsworth, 1826)



-God, who is the servant of Man.
(Annotations to Dr. Thornton's "New Translation of the Lord's Prayer", 1827)


-Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
(Annotations to Lavater's Aphorisms on Man, 1788)



The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life & bid thee feed
By the stream & o'er the mead
Gave thee clothing of delight
Softest clothing, wooly, bright
Gave thee such a tender voice
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, & he is mild,
He became a little child.
I a child, & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
(Songs of Inocence, 1789)



Soft Snow
I walked abroad in a snowny day:
I ask'd the soft snow with me to play:
She play'd & she melted in all her prime,
And the winter call'd it a dreadful crime.
(Poems from the Note-Book, 1793)