William Blake
William Blake
William Blakewas an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic works have been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 November 1757
When Sir Joshua Reynolds died All Nature was degraded; The King dropped a tear in the Queen's ear, And all his pictures faded.
To be an Error and to be Cast out is a part of God's Design.
The grave is Heaven's golden gate, And rich and poor around it wait; O Shepherdess of England's fold, Behold this gate of pearl and gold!
The ignorant Insults of Individuals will not hinder me from doing my duty to my Art
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed or governed their passions, but because they have cultivate their understandings.
Energy is the only life, and is from the body; and reason is the bound or outward circumference of energy. Energy is eternal delight.
Everything is beautiful in its own way. Exuberance is beauty.
The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.
Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroy'd it; a Warlike State never can produce Art. It will Rob & Plunder & accumulate into one place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell & Criticize, but not Make.
Degrade first the Arts if you'd Mankind Degrade. Hire Idiots to Paint with cold light & hot shade: Give high Price for the worst, leave the best in disgrace, And with Labours of Ignorance fill every place.
Enthusiastic Admiration is the first Principle of Knowledge and its last.
Every wolf's and lion's howl Raises from Hell a human soul.
Without minute neatness of execution, the sublime cannot exist! Grandeur of ideas is founded on precision of ideas.
Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm.