Thou art a man God is no more Thy own humanity Learn to adore
William BlakeRead
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
Interpretation
Improvement leads to straightforward success, while the unconventional paths foster creativity and genius.
William Blake's quote suggests that while systematic improvement and hard work create clear and direct paths to achievement, the more irregular and challenging routes, which may lack the benefits of improvement, are often where true genius and creativity arise. This highlights the value of embracing complexity and deviation from the norm in the creative process.
In practice
During a motivational speech on innovation, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of creative thinking.
Thou art a man God is no more Thy own humanity Learn to adore
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
O thou who passest through our valleys in Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat That flames from their large nostrils! Thou, O Summer, Oft pitchest here thy golden tent, and oft Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
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.
As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars.
My self healing lies in praying for those who have harmed me.
The grateful person fears no court or judge, no sentence or executioner, but what he carries about him in his own breast: and being still the most severe exactor of himself, not only confesses but proclaims his debts.
The relation of patience to iman is like the relation of the head to the body. If the head is chopped off, the body becomes useless. Then he raised his voice and said: Certainly, the one who has no patience has no iman, and patience is like a riding-beast that nevers gets tired
What we are tempted to call a disaster is sometimes the first, painful stage of a blessing.
A well-worn adage advises those who set out upon a great enterprise to count the cost, yet some of the greatest enterprises have succeeded because the people who undertook them did not count the cost.
To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing - the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again.
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