William Blake · 48 pages
Rating: (7.3K votes)
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
“Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”
“Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.”
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
“For every thing that lives is Holy.”
“The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”
“Expect poison from the standing water.”
“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion”
“The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert, that God spoke to them; and whether they did not think at the time, that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answer'd, I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then persuaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote.”
“Without contraries there is no progression.”
“Dip him in the river who loves water.”
“The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.”
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
“The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity;
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood;
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc’d that the Gods had order’d such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.”
“Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.”
“The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.”
“Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth.”
“A dead body revenges not injuries.”
“Down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way, till a void boundless as the nether sky appeared beneath us, and we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said: if you please we will commit ourselves to this void and see whether providence is here also.”
“La Eternidad está enamorada de las obras del tiempo.”
“Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.”
“El mejor vino es el más viejo, la mejor agua es la más nueva.”
“The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.”
“The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.”
“«Hay que comer menos para adelgazar, pero eso es muy duro para una vieja que está sola en el mundo. Necesita más cantidad para sí misma que los demás. Cuando uno no tiene al lado a nadie que le quiera, empieza a criar grasa».”
“Newton was “not finally reducible to the criteria by which we comprehend our fellow human beings.”
“Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream.”
“Stupid. Shortsighted. A man born with a sense for raw opportunity where his soul should have been. Miller’s”
“Her giggles were like music to the ear. Like her smiles were beauty to the eyes.
~Alex”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.