William Blake

“ “Bray a fool in a mortar with wheat, yet shall not his folly be beaten out of him. If Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love Him in the greatest degree. Now hear how He has given His sanction to the law of ten commandments. Did He not mock at the Sabbath, and so mock the Sabbath’s God? murder those who were murdered because of Him? turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery, steal the labour of others to support Him? bear false witness when He omitted making a defence before Pilate? ”

“ 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, and so be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answered: “I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception: but my senses discovered the infinite in everything; and as I was then persuaded, and remained confirmed, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but wrote.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
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Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.
All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap. ”

“ Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool and the sullen frowning fool shall be both thought wise that they may be a rod. ”

“ Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. ”

“ Note.—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. ”

“ As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. ”

“ PROVERBS OF HELL
In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plough over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. ”

“ But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up, til he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. ”

“ 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 pronounced that the gods had orderd such things. ”

“ The Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence and now seem to live in it in chains are in truth the causes of its life and the sources of all activity, but the chains are the cunning of weak and tame minds, which have power to resist energy, according to the proverb, “The weak in courage is strong in cunning.” ”

“ Beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest, till looking East between the clouds and the waves, we saw a cataract of blood mixed with fire, and not many stones’ throw from us appeared and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent. ”

“ Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius. ”

“ He answered: “The desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite. This the North American tribes practise. And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience, only for the sake of present ease or gratification?” ”

“ I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from
impulse, not from rules.
When he had so spoken: I beheld the Angel who stretched out his arms embracing the flame of fire & he was consumed and arose as Elijah.
Note. This Angel, who is now become a Devil. is my particular friend: we often read the Bible together in its infernal or diabolical sense which the world shall have if they behave well.
I have also; The Bible of Hell: which the world shall have whether they will or no.
One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression ”

“ How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five? ”

“ A man carried a monkey about for a show, and because he was a little wiser than the monkey, grew vain, and conceived himself as much wiser than seven men. It is so with Swedenborg; he shows the folly of churches, and exposes hypocrites, till he imagines that all are religious, and himself the single one on earth that ever broke a net. ”

“ The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white. ”

“ Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that called Body is a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. ”

“ Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep
Once meek, and in a perilous path, The just man kept his course along The vale of death. ”

“ Then I asked: “Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?”
He replied: “All poets believe that [23] it does, and in ages of imagination this firm persuasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything.”
Then Ezekiel said: “The philosophy of the East taught the first principles of human perception; some nations held one principle for the origin, and some another. ”

“ The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction
Expect poison from the standing water. ”

“ The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet; watch the roots, the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains: the fountain overflows
One thought. fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time. as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion. ”

“ An Angel came to me and said O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such a career.
I said. perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable
So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the church vault at the end of which was a mill; thro' the mill we went, and came to a cave. ”

“ Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth. ”

“ down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a void boundless as a nether sky appeared us, & 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 this providence is here also, if you will not I will? ”

“ The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction. ”

“ “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.” ”