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.

You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral...

Vision is the end of religion.

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?

Active evil is better than passive good

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is – infinite.

My mother groaned, my father wept,into the dangerous world I leapt.

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...

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.

The Devil answer’d: bray a fool in a morter 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...

For Mercy has a human heart;Pity, a human face;And Love, the human form divine:And Peace the human dress.Songs of InnocenceCruelty has a human heartAnd jealousy a human face,Terror the human form divine,And secrecy the human...

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

Man has no Body distinct from his soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.

Dip him in the river who loves water.

Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.

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.

If a thing loves, it is infinite.

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.

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

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.

The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions 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.

For I dance And drink and sing,Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.If thought is lifeAnd strength and breathAnd the wantOf thought is deathThen am IA happy flyIf I liveOr if I die