Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare.

Infant JoyI have no nameI am but two days old.-What shall I call thee?I happy amJoy is my name,-Sweet joy befell thee!Pretty joy!Sweet joy but two days old.Sweet joy I call thee:Thou dost smile.I sing...

What is Above is Within … the Circumference is Winthin, Without is formed the Selfish Center, and the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.

The lamb misused breeds public strifeAnd yet forgives the butcher’s knife.

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,Who countest the steps of the Sun:Seeking after that sweet golden climeWhere the traveller’s journey is done. Where the Youth pined away with desire,And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow: Arise...

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.

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

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

He who binds to himself a joyDoes the winged life destroy;But he who kisses the joy as it fliesLives in eternity’s sun rise.

Expect poison from the standing water.

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

A Robin Redbreast in a CagePuts all Heaven in a Rage.A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeonsShudders Hell thro’ all its regions.A Dog starv’d at his Master’s GatePredicts the ruin of the State.A Horse...

The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.

excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or graver into my hand.

The stars are threshed, and the souls are threshed from their husks.

What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend

Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.

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...

Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

When nations grow old the Arts grow coldAnd commerce settles on every tree

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.

Thou art a manGod is no moreThy own humanityLearn to adore

But to go to school in a summer morn,O! It drives all joy away;Under a cruel eye outworn,The little ones spend the dayIn sighing and dismay.

Auguries of Innocence..A robin redbreast in a cagePuts all heaven in a rage.A dove-house fill’d with doves and pigeonsShudders hell thro’ all its regions.A dog starv’d at his master’s gatePredicts the ruin of the state.A...

A man can’t soar too high, when he flies with his own wings.

The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is No such thing as Inspiration & that any Man of a plain Understanding...

The Sick RoseO Rose, thou art sick.The invisible worm That flies in the nightIn the howling stormHas found out thy bed Of crimson joy,And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.

IV The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of a universe would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.V If the many become the same as the few, when possess’d,...

How can the bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?How can a child, when fears annoy,But droop his tender wing,And forget his youthful spring?

Auguries of innocence”He who mocks the infant’s faithShall be mock’d in age and death.He who shall teach the child to doubtThe rotting grave shall ne’er get out.He who respects the infant’s faithTriumphs over hell and...

Exuberance is beauty.

Answer this to yourselves, & expel from among you those who pretend to despise the labours of Art & Science, which alone are the labours of the Gospel: Is not this plain & manifest to...

weak” or otherwise because I choose to persist in a study which I decided deliberately four or five years ago to make, next to my poetry, the most important pursuit of my life…If I had...

For every thing that lives is Holy.

I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body & mind to exercise the Divine Arts of ImaginationImagination the real & eternal World of which this Vegetable...

I give you the end of a golden string,Only wind it into a ball,It will lead you in at Heaven’s gateBuilt in Jerusalem’s wall.

Auguries of innocence”It is right it should be so;Man was made for joy and woe;And when this we rightly know,Thro’ the world we safely go.Joy and woe are woven fine,A clothing for the soul divine.Under...

A truth that’s told with bad intentBeats all the lies you can invent.

How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?

Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.

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...

Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

He who replies to words of doubtdoth put the light of knowledge out.

Auguries of innocence”The emmet’s inch and eagle’s mileMake lame philosophy to smile.He who doubts from what he seesWill ne’er believe, do what you please.

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.