William Blake
William Blake
William Blakewas an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic works have been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 November 1757
Every Mortal loss is an Immortal Gain. The Ruins of Time build Mansions in Eternity.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.
There certainly are moments in history when poets and painters connect so closely as to be one and the same person,
When a man has married a wife, he finds out whether / Her knees and elbows are only glued together.
Mechanical excellence is the only vehicle of genius.
Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
Love seeketh not itself to please, but for another gives its ease.
One Law for the Lion and Ox is Oppression
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?
I sometimes try to be miserable that I may do more work, but find it is a foolish experiment.
I see the Fourfold Man; the Humanity in deadly sleep, / And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow. / I see the Past, Present, and Future existing all at once / Before me.
The selfish smiling fool, and the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
The sound is forced, the notes are few!