27 Inspiring Quotes by William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) is considered one of the great poets of the Romantic Age. Though his poems got little attention during his life, he has come to be viewed as one of Britain’s greatest poets. He was never short on creative language, but managed to deliver profound mystical and philosophical messages. He was also a painter. A 2002 British poll listed him has the 38th greatest Briton of all-time.
Here are 10 of his most inspiring and profound quotes. Most of them require a little more reflection to glean the meaning.
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
How can a bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
If a thing loves, it is infinite.
The imagination if not a state; it’s human existence itself.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity's sunrise.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.
Everything to be imagined is an image of truth.
If the sun and the moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.
The fool who persists in this folly will become wise.
Knowledge is life with wings.
Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.
A fool sees not the same tree that the wise man sees.
And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification
The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.