Born in London on 28th November 1757, William Blake was the third of five children in a hosier’s family.
Despite limited schooling, his undeniable talent for drawing led him to an apprenticeship with an engraver at age 14.
He later married Catherine Boucher, who collaborated on his artistic creations, including their book ‘Songs of Innocence’.
Blake employed a unique engraving technique, which he claimed was inspired by a dream, with Catherine coloring and binding the plates.
However, Blake’s life was marked by economic struggles and lack of public recognition, sending him into a severe depression from 1810 to 1817.
Despite his small-scale engravings, his exquisite details are impressive. He was often guided by his gentle, mystical views of Christianity in his works.
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Posthumously, Blake’s work received more acclaim and his poetry was even set to music.
Blake died on 12th August 1827 and is remembered for his exceptional contribution to English literature and art.
I have compiled the most inspiring quotes by William Blake to share with you.
Best William Blake Quotes
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. ~ William Blake.
God only acts and is, in existing beings or men. ~ William Blake.
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. ~ William Blake.
Imitation is criticism. ~ William Blake.
Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells? ~ William Blake.
To generalize is to be an idiot. ~ William Blake.
He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sunrise. ~ William Blake.
I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me. ~ William Blake.
Gratitude is heaven itself; there could be no heaven without gratitude. ~ William Blake.
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love. ~ William Blake.
I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. ~ William Blake.
Famous William Blake Quotes
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow. ~ William Blake.
Great things are done when men and mountains meet. ~ William Blake.
Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine. ~ William Blake.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. ~ William Blake.
Execution is the chariot of genius. ~ William Blake.
I see through my eyes, not with them. ~ William Blake.
When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend. ~ William Blake.
You become what you behold. ~ William Blake.
And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love. ~ William Blake.
Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion. ~ William Blake.
Prudence is a rich, ugly, old maid courted by incapacity. ~ William Blake.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time. ~ William Blake.
How can a bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? ~ William Blake.
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. ~ William Blake.
Inspiring William Blake Quotes
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. ~ William Blake.
For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. ~ William Blake.
One Power alone makes a Poet: Imagination. The Divine Vision. ~ William Blake.
Celebrate your existence! ~ William Blake.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. ~ William Blake.
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~ William Blake.
Knowledge is Life with wings. ~ William Blake.
A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. ~ William Blake.
One thought fills immensity. ~ William Blake.
I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand. ~ William Blake.
The Goddess Fortune is the devil’s servant, ready to kiss any one’s ass. ~ William Blake.
Energy is eternal delight. ~ William Blake.
Top William Blake Quotes
How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, But droop his tender wing, And forget his youthful spring? ~ William Blake.
Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire. ~ William Blake.
The cut worm forgives the plow. ~ William Blake.
We are led to believe a lie When we see not through the eye. ~ William Blake.
I cry, Love! Love! Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain wind! ~ William Blake.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. ~ William Blake.
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors. ~ William Blake.
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life. ~ William Blake.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity, too great for the eye of man. ~ William Blake.
In every cry of every man, In every infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. ~ William Blake.
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. ~ William Blake.
Popular William Blake Quotes
Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night. ~ William Blake.
Love is weak when there is more doubt than there is trust, but love is most strong when you learn to trust even with all the doubts. If a thing loves, it is infinite. ~ William Blake.
Work up imagination to the state of vision. ~ William Blake.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God. ~ William Blake.
Exuberance is beauty. ~ William Blake.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty! ~ William Blake.
God appears, and God is Light, to those poor souls who dwell in Night; but does a Human Form display to those who dwell in realms of Day. ~ William Blake.
Gratitude is heaven itself. ~ William Blake.
What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. ~ William Blake.
Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. ~ William Blake.
Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed. ~ William Blake.
Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. ~ William Blake.
They who forgive most shall be most forgiven. ~ William Blake.
Great William Blake Quotes
What is now proved was once only imagined. ~ William Blake.
Do what you will, this world’s a fiction and is made up of contradiction. ~ William Blake.
The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself. ~ William Blake.
The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. ~ William Blake.
I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create. ~ William Blake.
The ruins of time build mansions in eternity. ~ William Blake.
A dog starved at his master’s gate Predicts the ruin of the state. ~ William Blake.
Without Unceasing Practice nothing can be done. Practice is Art. If you leave off you are lost. ~ William Blake.
If a thing loves, it is infinite. ~ William Blake.
He who makes his law a curse, by his own law shall surely die. ~ William Blake.
A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. ~ William Blake.
God is the poetic genius in each of us. ~ William Blake.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. ~ William Blake.
Time is the Mercy of Eternity. ~ William Blake.
Thought-Provoking William Blake Quotes
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. ~ William Blake.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius. ~ William Blake.
Man was made for joy and woe;
Then when this we rightly know;
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine
A clothing for the soul to bind. ~ William Blake.
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps. ~ William Blake.
The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. ~ William Blake.
Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night. ~ William Blake.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself. ~ William Blake.
He who has few things to desire cannot have many to fear. ~ William Blake.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain! ~ William Blake.
The Woman that does not love your Frowns Will never embrace your smiles. ~ William Blake.
To some people a tree is something so incredibly beautiful that it brings tears to the eyes. To others it is just a green thing that stands in the way. ~ William Blake.
You throw the sand against the wind and the wind blows it back again. ~ William Blake.
Profound William Blake Quotes
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. ~ William Blake.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour. ~ William Blake.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow. ~ William Blake.
In your own bosom you bear your heaven and earth, And all you behold, though it appears without, It is within, in your imagination, Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. ~ William Blake.
Everything is beautiful in its own way. Exuberance is beauty. ~ William Blake.
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. ~ William Blake.
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion. ~ William Blake.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed. ~ William Blake.
Pride is a personal commitment. It is an attitude which separates excellence from mediocrity. ~ William Blake.
Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy. ~ William Blake.
The eye altering, alters all. ~ William Blake.
Opposition is true friendship. ~ William Blake.
Wise William Blake Quotes
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ~ William Blake.
I have conversed with the spiritual Sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill. ~ William Blake.
The true method of knowledge is experiment. ~ William Blake.
Each man must create his own system or else he is a slave to another mans. ~ William Blake.
The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after death of the vegetative body. ~ William Blake.
Nature has no outline. Imagination has. ~ William Blake.
When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do. ~ William Blake.
Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair. ~ William Blake.
If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out. ~ William Blake.
As a man is, so he sees. ~ William Blake.
Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but never with ignorance. ~ William Blake.
The naked women’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man. ~ William Blake.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. ~ William Blake.
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. ~ William Blake.
He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise. ~ William Blake.
Expect poison from the standing water. ~ William Blake.
The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. ~ William Blake.
Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life. ~ William Blake.
The fool who persists in his folly will become wise. ~ William Blake.
So these were the 118 top William Blake quotes and sayings on love, life, nature, death and imagination.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Zitkala-Sa quotes and Fannie Lou Hamer quotes.
