Top 400 William Blake Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “O why was I born with a different face? Why was I not born like the rest of my race?”

— William Blake

352. “When nations grow old the Arts grow cold And commerce settles on every tree.”

— William Blake

353. “The fields from Islington to Marybone, To Primrose Hill and Saint John’s Wood, Were builded over with pillars of gold; And there Jerusalem’s pillars stood.”

— William Blake

354. “My silks and fine array, My smiles and languished air, By love are driv’n away And mournful lean Despair Brings me yew to deck my grave: Such end true lovers have.”

— William Blake

355. “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 cloth seize my brain With frantic pain.”

— William Blake

356. “God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!”

— William Blake

357. “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

358. “To the eyes of a miser a guinea is more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes.”

— William Blake

359. “God keep me from the divinity of Yes and Nothe Yea Nay Creeping Jesus, from supposing Up and Down to be the same thing as allexperimentalists must suppose.”

— William Blake

360. “A tyrant is the worst disease, and the cause of all others.”

— William Blake

361. “Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm.”

— William Blake

362. “Silent as despairing love, and strong as jealousy...”

— William Blake

363. “How sweet I roamed from field to field, And tasted all the summer’s pride, Till I the prince of love beheld, Who in the sunny beams did glide!”

— William Blake

364. “The Fool shall not enter into Heaven let him be ever so Holy.”

— William Blake

365. “The ignorant Insults of Individuals will not hinder me from doing my duty to my Art.”

— William Blake

366. “There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on.”

— William Blake

367. “Sweet babe, in thy face Soft desires I can trace, Secret joys and secret smiles, Little pretty infant wiles.”

— William Blake

368. “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

369. “The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.”

— William Blake

370. “I love hanging and drawing and quartering Every bit as well as war and slaughtering.”

— William Blake

371. “Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”

— William Blake

372. “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.”

— William Blake

373. “Praises reap not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!”

— William Blake

374. “I heard an Angel singing; When the day was springing, Mercy, Pity, Peace; Is the world’s release.”

— William Blake

375. “The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave.”

— William Blake

376. “Art degraded, Imagination denied.”

— William Blake

377. “Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse.”

— William Blake

378. “Although wine when it is read somewhat lacks the savour of wine when it is drunk, wine remains a very pleasant thing both to read about and to chat about.”

— William Blake

379. “I am going to that country which I have all my life wished to see.”

— William Blake

380. “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

381. “The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations.”

— William Blake

382. “Naught can deform the human race Like to the armor’s iron brace.”

— William Blake

383. “How have you left the ancient love That bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!”

— William Blake

384. “Let every Christian, as much as in him lies, engage himself openly and publicly, before all the World, in some mental pursuit for the Building up of Jerusalem.”

— William Blake

385. “On no other ground Can I sow my seed Without tearing up Some stinking weed.”

— William Blake

386. “Mercy is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”

— William Blake

387. “I’m sure this Jesus will not do Either for Englishman or Jew.”

— William Blake

388. “General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocite, flatterer.”

— William Blake

389. “There is a place where Contrarieties are equally true. This place is called Beulah. it is a pleasant lovely Shadow, where no dispute can come, because of those who sleep.”

— William Blake

390. “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

391. “Where cheating is, there’s mischief there.”

— William Blake

392. “Can I see a falling tear, And not feel my sorrow’s share?”

— William Blake

393. “He who shall teach the child to doubtThe rotting grave shall ne’er get out.”

— William Blake

394. “Terrified at Non Existence, for such they deemd the death of the body, Los his vegetable hands outstretch’d; his right hand branching out in fibrous Strength siez’d the Sun; his left hand like dark roots cover’d the Moon, and tore them down, cracking the heavens across from immense to immense.”

— William Blake

395. “To Chloe’s breast young Cupid slily stole, But he crept in at Myra’s pocket-hole.”

— William Blake

396. “They solved the problem of coexistence through the use of individual stereo headphones.”

— William Blake

397. “Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night...”

— William Blake

398. “Mercy, pity, and peace, Are the world’s release.”

— William Blake

399. “Every tear from every eyeBecomes a babe in eternity.”

— William Blake

400. “Harmony of colouring is destructive of art? it is like the smile of a fool.”

— William Blake