William Blake

Like a fiend in a cloud,_x000D_ With howling woe,_x000D_ After night I do crowd,_x000D_ And with night will go;_x000D_ I turn my back to the east,_x000D_ From whence comforts have increased;_x000D_ For light doth seize my brain_x000D_ With frantic pain.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings_x000D_ _x000D_ To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:_x000D_ _x000D_ He withers all in silence, and his hand_x000D_ _x000D_ Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

Abstinence sows sand all over The ruddy limbs and flaming hair, But desire gratified Plants fruits of life and beauty there.

The vision of Christ that thou dost see Is my vision's greatest enemy.

Mysteries are not to be solved. They eye goes blind when it only wants to see why.

First thought is best in Art, second in other matters.

The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.

To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness.

I must create a system, or be enslav'd by another man's.

I rest not from my great task! | To open the Eternal Worlds, | to open the immortal Eyes of Man | Inwards into the Worlds of Thought; | Into eternity, ever expanding | In the Bosom of God, | The Human Imagination

The Man who never in his Mind & Thoughts travel'd to Heaven Is No Artist.

If Christianity was morality, Socrates would be the Saviour.

Then my verse I dishonor, my pictures despise, my person degrade and my temper chastise; and the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame; and my talents I bury, and dead is my fame.

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.

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.

When the doors of perception are cleansed, men will see things as they truly are, infinite.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

Poetry fettered fetters the human race.

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling. And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.