Background Image

...

Some Say That Happiness Is Not Good For Mortals, & They Ought To Be Answered That Sorrow Is Not Fit For Immortals & Is Utterly Useless To Any One; A Blight Never Does Good To A Tree, & If A Blight Kill Not A Tree But It Still Bear Fruit, Let None Say That The Fruit Was In Consequence Of The Blight.

-William Blake

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Some Say That Happiness

William Blake

...

Some Say That Happiness Is Not Good For Mortals, & They Ought To Be Answered That Sorrow Is Not Fit For Immortals & Is Utterly Useless To Any One; A Blight Never Does Good To A Tree, & If A Blight Kill Not A Tree But It Still Bear Fruit, Let None Say That The Fruit Was In Consequence Of The Blight.

Views: 82245

Topic

More From William Blake

He Who Would Do Good To Another Must Do It In Minute Particulars: General Good Is The Plea Of The Scoundrel, Hypocrite, And Flatterer, For Art And Science Cannot Exist But In Minutely Organized Particulars.

Struggling In My Father's Hands, Striving Against My Swaddling Bands, Bound And Weary, I Thought Best To Sulk Upon My Mother's Breast.

Energy Is Eternal Delight.

Enlightenment Means Taking Full Responsibility For Your Life.

Exuberance Is Beauty.

Joys Impregnate. Sorrows Bring Forth.

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.

The Naked Women's Body Is A Portion Of Eternity Too Great For The Eye Of Man.

He Whose Face Gives No Light, Shall Never Become A Star.

When Thou Seest An Eagle, Thou Seest A Portion Of Genius; Lift Up Thy Head!

Grown Old In Love From Seven Till Seven Times Seven,i Oft Have Wished For Hell For Ease From Heaven.

Oh! Why Was I Born With A Different Face? Why Was I Not Born Like The Rest Of My Race? When I Look,each One Starts! When I Speak, I Offend; Then Im Silent & Passive & Lose Every Friend. Then My Verse I Dishonour, My Pictures Despise, My Person Degrade & My Temper Chastise; And The Pen Is My Terror, The Pencil My Shame; All My Talents I Bury, And Dead Is My Fame. Im Either Too Low Or Too Highly Prized; When Elate I M Envy'd, When Meek Im Despis'd

Different Faces

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.

That The Jews Assumed A Right Exclusively To The Benefits Of God Will Be A Lasting Witness Against Them And The Same Will It Be Against Christians.

O Winter! Bar Thine Adamantine Doors: The North Is Thine; There Hast Thou Build Thy Dark, Deep-founded Habitation. Shake Not Thy Roofs, Nor Bend Thy Pillars With Thine Iron Car.

Praises Reap Not! Joys Laugh Not! Sorrows Weep Not!

The Fool Who Persists In His Folly Will Become Wise.

Without Unceasing Practice Nothing Can Be Done. Practice Is Art. If You Leave Off You Are Lost.

Dear Mother, Dear Mother, The Church Is Cold, But The Ale-house Is Healthy And Pleasant And Warm.

The Whole Business Of Man Is The Arts, & All Things Common.

'come Hither, My Boy, Tell Me What Thou Seest There?' 'a Fool Tangled In A Religious Snare.'

Then Cherish Pity, Lest You Drive An Angel From Your Door.

Innocence And Experience

Each Man Must Create His Own System Or Else He Is A Slave To Another Mans

They Who Forgive Most Shall Be Most Forgiven.

Great Things Are Done When Men And Mountains Meet.

But Most Thro' Midnight Streets I Hear How The Youthful Harlots Curse Blasts The New-born Infants Tear And Blights With Plagues The Marriage Hearse

Everything To Be Imagined Is An Image Of Truth.

But When He Has Done This, Let Him Not Say That He Knows Better Than His Master, For He Only Holds A Candle In Sunshine.

Where There Is Money There Is No Art.

Prudence Is A Rich, Ugly, Old Maid Courted By Incapacity.

The Crow Wished Everything Was Black, The Owl, That Everything Was White.

O White-robed Angel, Guide My Timorous Hand To Write As On A Lofty Rock With Iron Pen The Words Of Truth, That All Who Pass May Read.

If You Trap The Moment Before It's Ripe, The Tears Of Repentence You'll Certainly Wipe; But If Once You Let The Ripe Moment Go You Can Never Wipe Off The Tears Of Woe.

He Who Loves His Enemies Betrays His Friends; This Surely Is Not What Jesus Meant.

A Fool Sees Not The Same Tree That A Wise Man Sees.

And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time Walk Upon England's Mountains Green? And Was The Holy Lamb Of God On England's Pleasant Pastures Seen?

The Atoms Of Democritus And Newton's Particles Of Light Are Sands Upon The Red Sea Shore, Where Israel's Tents Do Shine So Bright.

Shame Is Pride's Cloak.

Sweet Babe, In Thy Face Soft Desires I Can Trace, Secret Joys And Secret Smiles, Little Pretty Infant Wiles.

Better To Shun The Bait Than Struggle In The Snare.

The Man Who Pretends To Be A Modest Enquirer Into The Truth Of A Self-evident Thing Is A Knave.

Nature Has No Outline. Imagination Has.

This Life's Dim Windows Of The Soul Distorts The Heavens From Pole To Pole And Leads You To Believe A Lie When You See With, Not Through, The Eye.

When The Voices Of Children Are Heard On The Greenand Laughing Is Heard On The Hill,my Heart Is At Rest Within My Breastand Everything Else Is Still.

It Is Easier To Forgive An Enemy Than To Forgive A Friend.

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.

To See A World In A Grain Of Sand And A Heaven In A Wildflower.

Eternity Of Life

Error Is Created; Truth Is Eternal.

Make Your Own Rules Or Be A Slave To Another Man's.

The Ruins Of Time Build Mansions In Eternity.

I'm Sure This Jesus Will Not Do Either For Englishman Or Jew.

Dip Him In The River Who Loves Water.

Both Read The Bible Day And Night, But Thou Read Black Where I Read White.

He Who Wants, But Doesn't Act, Is A Pest.

Children Of The Future Age Reading This Indignant Page Know That In A Former Time Love, Sweet Love, Was Thought A Crime

Expect Poison From The Standing Water.

I Must Create A System, Or Be Enslav'd By Another Man's.

God Appears, And God Is Light, To Those Poor Souls Who Dwell In Night; But Does A Human Form Display To Those Who Dwell In Realms Of Day.

I Must Create A System Or Be Enslaved By Another Mans; I Will Not Reason And Compare: My Business Is To Create.

I Love Hanging And Drawing And Quartering Every Bit As Well As War And Slaughtering.

I Heard An Angel Singing; When The Day Was Springing, Mercy, Pity, Peace; Is The World's Release.

Without Contraries Is No Progression. Attraction And Repulsion, Reason And Energy, Love And Hate, Are Necessary To Human Existence.

Opposition Is True Friendship.

True Friendship

Ages Are All Equal. / But Genius Is Always Above The Age.

When The Sun Rises, Do You Not See A Round Disc Of Fire Somewhat Like A Guinea? O No, No, I See An Innumerable Company Of The Heavenly Host Crying Holy, Holy, Holy Is The Lord God Almighty.

Mere Enthusiasm Is The All In All... / Passion And Expression Are Beauty Itself.

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!

Poetry, Painting & Music, The Three Powers In Man Of Conversing With Paradise, Which The Flood Did Not Sweep Away.

I See The Past, Present & Future Existing All At Once Before Me.

Past Present Future

God Only Acts And Is, In Existing Beings Or Men.

Thou Art A Man God Is No More Thy Own Humanity Learn To Adore

I See Through My Eyes, Not With Them.

Through My Eyes

He Who Would Do Good To Another Must Do It In Minute Particulars.

The Old And New Testaments Are The Great Code Of Art.

Rome & Greece Swept Art Into Their Maw & Destroy'd It; A Warlike State Never Can Produce Art. It Will Rob & Plunder & Accumulate Into One Place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell & Criticize, But Not Make.

The Modest Rose Puts Forth A Thorn,the Humble Sheep A Threat'ning Horn:while The Lily White Shall In Love Delight,nor A Thorn Nor A Threat Stain Her Beauty Bright.

Work Up Imagination To The State Of Vision.

Art Is The Tree Of Life. Science Is The Tree Of Death.

General Good Is The Plea Of The Scoundrel, Hypocite, Flatterer.

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?

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.

The Eagle Never Lost So Much Time As When He Submitted To Learn Of The Crow

Do What You Will This Life's A Fiction, And Is Made Up Of Contradiction.

I Myself Do Nothing. The Holy Spirit Accomplishes All Through Me.

Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau! Mock On, Mock On: 'tis All In Vain! You Throw The Sand Against The Wind, And The Wind Blows It Back Again. And Every Sand Becomes A Gem Reflected In The Beams Divine; Blown Back They Blind The Mocking Eye, But Still In Israel's Paths They Shine. The Atoms Of Democritus And Newton's Particles Of Light Are Sands Upon The Red Sea Shore, Where Israel's Tents Do Shine So Bright.

[l]et Light Rise From The Chambers Of The East, And Bring The Honey'd Dew That Cometh On Waking Day. O Radiant Morning.

And We Are Put On Earth A Little Space, That We May Learn To Bear The Beams Of Love.

Some Are Born To Sweet Delight, Some Are Born To Endless Night.

Imagination Is The Real And Eternal World Of Which This Vegetable Universe Is But A Faint Shadow.

To The Eyes Of The Man Of Imagination, Nature Is Imagination Itself.

He Who Desires, But Acts Not, Breeds Pestilence.

Commerce Is So Far From Being Beneficial To Arts, Or To Empire, That It Is Destructive Of Both, As All Their History Shows, For The Above Reason Of Individual Merit Being Its Great Hatred. Empires Flourish Till They Become Commercial, And Then They Are Scattered Abroad To The Four Winds.

She Who Dwells With Me Whom I Have Loved With Such Communion, That No Place On Earth Can Ever Be Solitude To Me.

He Who Kisses Joy As It Flies By Will Live In Eternity's Sunrise.

There Is No Mistake So Great As The Mistake Of Not Going On.

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.

How Can The Bird That Is Born For Joy Sit In A Cage And Sing? How Can A Child, When Fears Annoy, But Droop His Tender Wing, And Forget His Youthful Spring?

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 Doth Seize My Brain With Frantic Pain.

Nothing Can Be More Contemptible Than To Suppose Public Records To Be True.

The Countless Gold Of A Merry Heart, The Rubies And Pearls Of A Loving Eye, The Indolent Never Can Bring To The Mart, Nor The Secret Hoard Up In His Treasury.

Gratitude Is Heaven Itself.

He Who Doubts From What He Sees Will Ne'er Believe, Do What You Please.

What Seems To Be, Is, To Those To Whom It Seems To Be, And Is Productive Of The Most Dreadful Consequences To Those To Whom It Seems To Be, Even Of Torments, Despair, Eternal Death.

And Priests In Black Gowns Were Walking Their Rounds And Binding With Briars My Joys And Desires. (from 'the Garden Of Love')

Embraces Are Comminglings From The Head Even To The Feet, And Not A Pompous High Priest Entering By A Secret Place.

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.

When The Doors Of Perception Are Cleansed, Men Will See Things As They Truly Are, Infinite.

He Who Makes His Law A Curse, By His Own Law Shall Surely Die.

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.

Every Man Who Is Not An Artist Is A Traitor To His Own Nature.

Kill Not The Moth Nor Butterfly, For The Last Judgement Draweth Nigh.

The Sick Rose O Rose, Thou Art Sick. The Invisible Worm That Flies In The Night In The Howling Storm Has Found Out Thy Bed Of Crimson Joy, And His Dark Secret Love Does Thy Life Destroy.

Love's Secret Never Seek To Tell Thy Love, Love That Never Told Can Be; For The Gentle Wind Doth Move Silently, Invisibly. I Told My Love, I Told My Love, I Told Her All My Heart, Trembling, Cold, In Ghastly Fears. Ah! She Did Depart! Soon After She Was Gone From Me, A Traveller Came By, Silently, Invisibly: He Took Her With A Sigh.

As We Are, So We See.

Christ's Crucifix Shall Be Made An Excuse For Executing Criminals.

One Thought Fills Immensity.

The Eye Altering, Alters All.

Art Can Never Exist Without Naked Beauty Displayed.

There Is A Place Where Contrarieties Are Equally True.

For Where'er The Sun Does Shine, And Where'er The Rain Does Fall, Babe Can Never Hunger There, Nor Poverty The Mind Appall.

The Best Wine Is The Oldest, The Best Water The Newest.

Love Is Weak When There Is More Doubt Than There Is Trust, But Love Is Most Strong When You Learn To Trust Even With All The Doubts. If A Thing Loves, It Is Infinite.

Those Who Restrain Desire, Do So Because Theirs Is Weak Enough To Be Restrained.

If Others Had Not Been Foolish, We Should Be So.

When I Tell The Truth, It Is Not For The Sake Of Convincing Those Who Do Not Know It, But For The Sake Of Defending Those That Do.

Mere Enthusiasm Is The All In All.

We Are Here To Learn To Endure The Beams Of Love

Jesus & His Apostles & Disciples Were All Artists

My Brother Starv'd Between Two Walls,his Children's Cry My Soul Appalls

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.

The Generations Of Men Run On In The Tide Of Time, But Leave Their Destined Lineaments Permanent For Ever And Ever.

Where Any View Of Money Exists, Art Cannot Be Carried On.

If A Thing Loves, It Is Infinite.

Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright In The Forests Of The Night, What Immortal Hand Or Eye Could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry?

To Be An Error And To Be Cast Out Is A Part Of God's Design.

O Thou With Dewy Locks, Who Lookest Down Thro' The Clear Windows Of The Morning, Turn Thine Angel Eyes Upon Our Western Isle, Which In Full Choir Hails Thy Approach, O Spring! The Hills Tell Each Other, And The Listening Valleys Hear; All Our Longing Eyes Are Turned Up To Thy Bright Pavilions: Issue Forth, And Let Thy Holy Feet Visit Our Clime. Come O'er The Eastern Hills, And Let Our Winds Kiss Thy Perfumed Garments; Let Us Taste Thy Morn And Evening Breath; Scatter Thy Pearls Upon Our Love-sick Land That Mourns For Thee.

I Went To The Garden Of Love, And Saw What I Never Had Seen: A Chapel Was Built In The Midst, Where I Used To Play On The Green. And The Gates Of This Chapel Were Shut, And 'thou Shalt Not' Writ Over The Door; So I Turn'd To The Garden Of Love, That So Many Sweet Flowers Bore. And I Saw It Was Filled With Graves, And Tomb-stones Where Flowers Should Be: And Priests In Black Gowns, Were Walking Their Rounds, And Binding With Briars, My Joys & Desires.

Sooner Strangle An Infant In Its Cradle Than Nurse Unacted Desires.

How Can A Bird That Is Born For Joy Sit In A Cage And Sing?

The Angel That Presided O'er My Birth Said, 'little Creature, Formed Of Joy And Mirth, Go Love Without The Help Of Any Thing On Earth'.

The Fox Condemns The Trap, Not Himself.

Poetry Fettered, Fetters The Human Race. Nations Are Destroyed Or Flourish In Proportion As Their Poetry, Painting, And Music Are Destroyed Or Flourish.

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? Dost Thou Know Who Made Thee?

Heaven Is In A Grain Of Sand.

Fun I Love, But Too Much Fun Is Of All Things The Most Loathsome. Mirth Is Better Than Fun, And Happiness Is Better Than Mirth.

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.

The Reason Milton Wrote In Fetters When He Wrote Of Angels And God, And At Liberty When Of Devils And Hell, Is Because He Was A True Poet And Of The Devil's Party Without Knowing It.

On No Other Ground Can I Sow My Seed Without Tearing Up Some Stinking Weed.

The Busy Bee Has No Time For Sorrow.

Holy, Holy, Holy Is The Lord God Almighty !

To Mercy Pity Peace And Love All Pray In Their Distress, And To These Virtues Of Delight Return Their Thankfulness. For Mercy Pity Peace And Love Is God Our Father Dear. And Mercy Pity Peace And Love Is Man His Child And Care. Then Every Man Of Every Clime That Prays In His Distress Prays To The Human Form Divine: Love Mercy Pity Peace. And All Must Love The Human Form In Heathen, Turk, Or Jew. Where Mercy, Love And Pity Dwell There God Is Dwelling Too.

Hold Infinity In The Palm Of Your Hand.

Eternity Of Life

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.

Mutual Forgiveness Of Each Vice. Such Are The Gates Of Paradise.

The Stolen And Perverted Writings Of Homer & Ovid, Of Plato & Cicero, Which All Men Ought To Contemn, Are Set Up By Artifice Against The Sublime Of The Bible

The Glory Of Christianity Is To Conquer By Forgiveness.

Christian Inspirational

When Nations Grow Old The Arts Grow Cold And Commerce Settles On Every Tree

England! Awake! Awake! Awake! Jerusalem Thy Sister Calls! Why Wilt Thou Sleep The Sleep Of Death And Close Her From Thy Ancient Walls?

If The Doors Of Perception Were Cleansed Everything Would Appear To Man As It Is, Infinite.

The Pride Of The Peacock Is The Glory Of God.

Desperate Remorse Swallows The Present In A Quenchless Rage.

Rhetoric Completes The Tools Of Learning. Dialectic Zeros In On The Logic Of Things, Of Particular Systems Of Thought Or Subjects. Rhetoric Takes The Next Grand Step And Brings All These Subjects Together Into One Whole.

It Is Not Because Angels Are Holier Than Men Or Devils That Makes Them Angels, But Because They Do Not Expect Holiness From One Another, But From God Only.

When Sir Joshua Reynolds Died All Nature Was Degraded

To Cast Aside From Poetry, All That Is Not Inspiration

Works Of Art Can Only Be Produc'd In Perfection Where The Man Is Either In Affluence Or Is Above The Care Of It.

The Ignorant Insults Of Individuals Will Not Hinder Me From Doing My Duty To My Art

I Am More Famed In Heaven For My Works Than I Could Well Conceive. In My Brain Are Studies & Chambers Filled With Books & Pictures Of Old, Which I Wrote And Painted In Ages Of Eternity Before My Mortal Life; And Whose Works Are The Delight & Study Of Archangels. Why, Then, Should I Be Anxious About The Riches Or Fame Of Mortality?

Naught Can Deform The Human Race Like To The Armor's Iron Brace.

The Fox Provides For Himself, But God Provides For The Lion.

Angels Are Happier Than Men And Devils, Because They Are Not Always Prying After Good And Evil In One Another, And Eating The Tree Of Knowledge For Satan's Gratification.

If Christianity Was Morality, Socrates Would Be The Saviour.

If You Would Help Another Man, You Must Do So In Minute Particulars.

Man Has Closed Himself Up, Till He Sees All Things Thro' Narrow Chinks Of His Cavern.

In Seed Time Learn, In Harvest Teach, In Winter Enjoy.

Thinking Of You

The Person Who Does Not Believe In Miracles Surely Makes It Certain That He Or She Will Never Take Part In One.

The Strongest Poison Ever Known Came From Caesar's Laurel Crown.

He Who Does Not Imagine In Stronger And Better Lineaments, And In Stronger And Better Light Than His Perishing And Mortal Eye Can See, Does Not Imagine At All.

In Every Cry Of Every Man, In Every Infant's Cry Of Fear, In Every Voice, In Every Ban, The Mind-forg'd Manacles I Hear.

The Pure Soul Shall Mount On Native Wings, . . . And Cut A Path Into The Heaven Of Glory.

I Cry, Love! Love! Love! Happy Happy Love! Free As The Mountain Wind!

I Was Angry With My Friend: I Told My Wrath, My Wrath Did End. I Was Angry With My Foe: I Told It Not, My Wrath Did Grow.

Drive Your Cart And Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead.

I Have No Name: I Am But Two Days Old. What Shall I Call Thee? I Happy Am, Joy Is My Name. Sweet Joy Befall Thee!

Love Seeketh Not Itself To Please, Nor For Itself Hath Any Care, But For Another Gives Its Ease, And Builds A Heaven In Hell's Despair.

It Is The Greatest Of Crimes To Depress True Art And Science.

The True Method Of Knowledge Is Experiment.

Always Be Ready To Speak Your Mind, And A Base Man Will Avoid You.

Speak Your Mind

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.

Thought Provoking

He Loves To Sit And Hear Me Sing, Then, Laughing, Sports And Plays With Me; Then Stretches Out My Golden Wing, And Mocks My Loss Of Liberty.

A Good Local Pub Has Much In Common With A Church, Except That A Pub Is Warmer, And There's More Conversation.

Where Mercy, Love, And Pity Dwell, There God Is Dwelling Too.

God Is The Poetic Genius In Each Of Us.

The Fool Shall Not Enter Into Heaven Let Him Be Ever So Holy.

Life Delights In Life.

To Some People A Tree Is Something So Incredibly Beautiful That It Brings Tears To The Eyes. To Others It Is Just A Green Thing That Stands In The Way.

Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity; Without Time's Swiftness Which Is The Swiftest Of All Things, All Were Eternal Torment.

The Imagination Is Not A State: It Is The Human Existence Itself.

Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity

Thus Men Forgot That All Deities Reside In The Human Breast.

Trending Author

Clarence Clemons

Bernard Malamud

Ralph Abernathy

Johannes Kepler

Category