Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

William Blake

English Poet, Engraver, Painter, Visionary Mystic

"There can be no good will. Will is always evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness."

"There certainly are moments in history when poets and painters connect so closely as to be one and the same person."

"There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on."

"They suppose that woman's love is sin; in consequence all the loves and graces with them are sin."

"Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night."

"Think not thou canst sigh a sigh and thy maker is not by; think not thou canst weep a tear and thy maker is not near."

"This cabinet is formed of gold and pearl and crystal shining bright, and within it opens into a world and a little lovely moony night."

"This life's dim windows of the soul Distorts the heavens from pole to pole And leads you to believe a lie When you see with, not through, the eye."

"This world of imagination is the world of eternity."

"Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled."

"Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place and governs the unwilling. And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire."

"Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."

"Thou fair-haired angel of the evening, now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown put on, and smile upon our evening bed!"

"Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast."

"Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake."

"Time is the mercy of eternity; without time's swiftness which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment."

"To cast aside from poetry, all that is not inspiration."

"To Chloe's breast young Cupid slily stole, but he crept in at Myra's pocket-hole."

"To create a little flower is the labor of ages."

"To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledges are those knowledges that idiots possess."

"To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination, and I feel flattered when I am told so. What is it sets Homer, Virgil and Milton in so high a rank of art? Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because they are addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and but immediately to the understanding or reason?"

"To mercy, pity, peace and love all pray in their distress, and to these virtues of delight return their thankfulness. For mercy pity peace and love is god our father dear. And mercy pity peace and love is man his child and care. Then every man of every clime that prays in his distress prays to the human form divine: love mercy pity peace. And all must love the human form in heathen, Turk, or Jew. Where mercy, love and pity dwell there god is dwelling too."

"To my eye Rubens' coloring is most contemptible. His shadows are a filthy brown somewhat the color of excrement."

"To open the eternal worlds, to open the immortal eyes of man inwards into the worlds of thought: into eternity ever expanding in the bosom of God, the human imagination."

"To the eyes of a miser a guinea is more beautiful than the sun and and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see nature at all. 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."

"Tools were made and born with hands, Every farmer understands."

"Travelers repose and dream among my leaves."

"True superstition is ignorant honesty and this is beloved of God and man."

"Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed. Enough! Or too much."

"Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense."

"Turn away no more; why wilt thou turn away? The starry floor, the watery shore, is given thee till the break of day."

"'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green."

"Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire? And what shoulder, and what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand? and what dread feet? What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

"Use what talents you possess; The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

"Wandering in many a coral grove, fair nine, forsaking poetry!"

"Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief's."

"We are led to believe a lie When we see not through the eye."

"We reap in joy the fruit which we in bitter tears did sow."

"Weeps incessantly for my sin."

"What has reasoning to do with painting?"

"What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? Are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion o demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!"

"What is above is within ... The circumference is within, without is formed the selfish center, and the circumference still expands going forward to eternity."

"What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care."

"What is it men in women do require: The lineaments of gratified desire. What is it women do in men require: The lineaments of gratified desire."

"What is the divine spirit? Is the holy ghost any other than an intellectual fountain?"

"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 that a man hath, his house, his wife, his children wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy and in the wither'd field where the farmer ploughs for bread in vain it is an easy thing to triumph in the summer's sun and in the vintage and to sing on the waggon loaded with corn it is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted to speak the laws of prudence to the homeless wanderer to listen to the hungry raven's cry in wintry season when the red blood is fill'd with wine and with the marrow of lambs it is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements to hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughterhouse moan; to see a God on every wind and a blessing on every blast to hear sounds of love in the thunderstorm that destroys our enemies' house; to rejoice in the blight that covers his field and the sickness that cuts off his children while our olive and vine sing and laugh round our door and our children bring fruits and flowers then the groan and the dolour are quite forgotten and the slave grinding at the mill and the captive in chains and the poor in the prison and the soldier in the field when the shatter'd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead it is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity: thus could I sing and thus rejoice: but it is not so with me."

"What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death."

"What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp?"

"What, it will be questioned, when the sun rises, do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea? O no, no, I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying holy, holy, holy is the lord God almighty."

"Whate'er is born of mortal birth must be consumed with the earth."