William Blake (1757 – 1827)
English poet, Christian mystic, painter, printmaker, and engraver.
Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.
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.
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade,
Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.
One thought. fills immensity.
Sing louder around
To the bells' cheerful sound,
While our sports shall be seen
On the ecchoing green.
Thinking as I do that the Creator of this World is a very Cruel Being & being a Worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: "the Son, O how unlike the Father!" First God Almighty comes with a Thump on the Head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.
If the sun and moon should doubt
They'd immediately go out.
Love to faults is always blind,
Always is to joys inclined,
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,>
Is given thee till the break of day.
This world of imagination is the world of eternity.
Commerce is so far from being beneficial to Arts or to Empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their History shows, for the above Reason of Individual Merit being its Great Hatred. Empires flourish till they become Commercial & then they are scattered abroad to the four winds
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity.
Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Poetry fettered fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed, or flourish, in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish!
Opposition is true Friendship.