William Blake was a visionary poet, artist, and engraver. He is most well known for his poem The Tyger, which has become one of the best-known poems in the English language. His work as an artist can be characterized by its use of symbolism and spiritual messages. In this blog post we will look at William’s life to find out more about him and what he accomplished during it.
Discover the most inspiring sentences from William Blake.
Here are the deepest Soul, Heaven, Hand, Love, Imagination, Night, Life, Light quotes from William Blake, and much more.
Notable Works: Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience, The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell, The Four Zoas, Jerusalem, Milton, “And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time”
WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES ON LIFE
For every thing that lives is Holy. — William Blake
I am going to that country which I have all my life wished to see. — William Blake
For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life. — William Blake
Knowledge is life with wings. — William Blake
Lives in eternity’s sun rise. — William Blake
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but foresight is better, especially when it comes to saving life, or some pain! — William Blake
Energy is the only life, and is from the body; and reason is the bound or outward circumference of energy. Energy is eternal delight. — William Blake
Abstinence sows sand all over The ruddy limbs and flaming hair, But desire gratified Plants fruits of life and beauty there. — 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 sun rise. — William Blake
Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life. — William Blake
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. — William Blake
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed or governed their passions, but because they have cultivate their understandings. — William Blake
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? — William Blake
Those who enter the gates of heaven are not beings who have no passions or who have curbed the passions, but those who have cultivated an understanding of them. — William Blake
Mutual forgiveness of each vice. Such are the Gates of Paradise. — William Blake
WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES ON THE SOUL
The stars are threshed, and the souls are threshed from their husks. — William Blake
The soul of sweet delight, can never be defiled. — William Blake
Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy. — William Blake
More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul. — William Blake
Every wolf’s and lion’s howl Raises from Hell a human soul. — William Blake
Man was made for joy and woe, and 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
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
Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. — 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
The pure soul shall mount on native wings, . . . and cut a path into the heaven of glory. — 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
My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; White as an angel is the English child, But I am black as if bereaved of light. — William Blake
Prepare your hearts for Death’s cold hand! prepare Your souls for flight, your bodies for the earth; Prepare your arms for glorious victory; Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God! Prepare, prepare! — William Blake
But if at church they would give some ale. And a pleasant fire our souls to regale. We’d sing and we’d pray all the live long day, Nor ever once from the church to stray. — William Blake
I’m sure this Jesus will not do Either for Englishman or Jew. — William Blake
Every harlot was a virgin once. — William Blake
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. — William Blake
Active Evil is better than Passive Good. — William Blake
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. — William Blake
WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES ABOUT LOVE
If a thing loves, it is infinite. — William Blake
Silent as despairing love, and strong as jealousy. — William Blake
I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love. — William Blake
There is a smile of love, And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles In which these two smiles meet. — William Blake
Fun I love, but too much fun is of all things the most loathsome. Mirth is better than fun, and happiness is better than mirth. — William Blake
Where mercy, love, and pity dwell there god is dwelling too. — William Blake
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. — William Blake
Dip him in the river who loves water. — William Blake
What was William Blake’s career like as a visual artist?
Although William Blake’s principal occupation was engraver, he transitioned to watercolour illustrations after an ambitious 1794 engraving commission floundered when published three years later.
He painted watercolours for his patrons illustrating works by Dante, William Shakespeare, and John Milton, although much of his art focused on biblical subjects
The Woman that does not love your Frowns Will never embrace your smiles. — William Blake
He who loves his enemies betrays his friends; this surely is not what Jesus meant. — William Blake
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence. — William Blake
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. — William Blake
Does the Eagle know what is in the pit Or wilt thou go ask the Mole? Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod, Or Love in a golden bowl? — 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
And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love. — William Blake
Redundant Thematics
In William Blake Statements
heaven
hand
love
imagination
world
night
life
human
soul
light
I cry, Love! Love! Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain wind! — William Blake
The Angel that presided o’er my birth Said, ‘Little creature, formed of joy and mirth, Go love without the help of any thing on earth’. — William Blake
The look of love alarms Because ’tis filled with fire; But the look of soft deceit Shall win the lover’s hire. — William Blake
I love hanging and drawing and quartering Every bit as well as war and slaughtering. — 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
Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind. — William Blake
Never seek to tell thy love; Love that never told can be. For the gentle wind does move silently.. invisibly. — William Blake
The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself. — William Blake
What is William Blake’s poetry about?
Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul is arguably William Blake’s most well-known poetic composition. The Lamb and the Tyger function as complementary symbols of the protection and corruption of innocence, respectively.
The hand of Vengeance found the Bed To which the Purple Tyrant fled The iron hand crush’d the tyrant’s head And became Tyrant in his stead. — William Blake
Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings To his strong bones, strides o’er the groaning rocks: He withers all in silence, and his hand Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life. — William Blake
Little fly, thy summer’s play My thoughtless hand has brushed away. Am not I a fly like thee? Or art not thou a man like me? For I dance and drink and sing, Till some blind hand shall brush my wing! — William Blake
O white–robed Angel, guide my timorous hand to write as on a lofty rock with iron pen the words of truth, that all who pass may read. — William Blake
What was William Blake’s reputation during his lifetime?
Many of William Blake’s contemporaries either ignored his work or outright ridiculed him.
Much of Blake’s art and poetry went unnoticed by the general public.
Works shown at his own exhibition received a scathing review from The Examiner that cut deeply, damaging Blake’s career beyond repair. . Source
To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. — William Blake
For I dance And drink and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength and breath And the want Of thought is death Then am I A happy fly If I live Or if I die — William Blake
WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES ON LIGHT
The atoms of Democritus And Newton’s particles of light Are sands upon the Red Sea shore, Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright. — William Blake
Colouring does not depend on where the colours are put, but on where the lights and darks are put, and all depends on form and outline, on where that is put. — William Blake
He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out. — William Blake
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star. — William Blake
L]et light Rise from the chambers of the east, and bring The honey’d dew that cometh on waking day. O radiant morning. — William Blake
Like a fiend in a cloud, With howling woe, After night I do crowd, And with night will go; I turn my back to the east, From whence comforts have increased; For light doth seize my brain With frantic pain. — William Blake
Thou fair–hair’d 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! — William Blake
Let the men do their duty & the women will be such wonders; the female life lives from the light of the male: see a man’s female dependants, you know the man. — William Blake
I thought Love lived in the hot sunshine, But O, he lives in the moony light! I thought to find Love in the heat of day, But sweet Love is the comforter of night. — William Blake
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. — William Blake
He who does not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger and better light than his perishing and mortal eye can see, does not imagine at all. — William Blake
The spirits of the air live on the smells Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round The gardens, or sits singing in the trees. — William Blake
If Christianity was morality, Socrates would be the Saviour. — William Blake
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. — William Blake
If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out. — William Blake
What is William Blake’s legacy?
William Blake’s poetry and art moved away from the periphery following Alexander Gilchrist’s publication of a two-part biography and compilation of Blake’s works in 1863, more than three decades after Blake’s death.
Thereafter, his work received positive critical attention, particularly in the first half of the 20th century and continuing to the present day. . Source
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. — William Blake
WILLIAM BLAKE QUOTES ABOUT THE NIGHT
Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night. — William Blake
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
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. — William Blake
And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. — William Blake
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,Dreaming o’er the joys of night.Sleep, sleep: in thy sleepLittle sorrows sit and weep. — William Blake
The moon, like a flower in heaven’s high bower, with silent delight sits and smiles on the night. — William Blake
O Earth, O Earth, return! Arise from out the dewy grass; Night is worn; And the morn Rises from the slumbrous mass. — William Blake
The Bat that flits at close of Eve Has left the Brain that won’t believe. The Owl that calls upon the Night Speaks the Unbeliever’s fright. — William Blake
The Sick Rose O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. — William Blake
