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
The selfish smiling fool, and the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.
The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.
The gulfing whale was like a dot in the spell. Yet look upon it, and 'twould size and swell To its huge self, and the minutest fish Would pass the very hardest gazer's wish, And show his little eye's anatomy.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love / All pray in their distress.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.
To the eyes of a miser a guinea is far more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions that a vine filled with grapes
What is now proved was only once imagined.
What is now proved was once only imagin'd