WILLIAM BLAKE: »Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.«
WILLIAM BLAKE: »The most sublime act is to set another before you.«
WILLIAM BLAKE: »The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.«
WILLIAM BLAKE: »The ancient poets animated all 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.«
Fra THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, 1789-90
WILLIAM BLAKE:
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
On Another's Sorrow
WILLIAM BLAKE:
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.
The Clod and & the Pebble
WILLIAM BLAKE:
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 turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.
The Garden of Love
Fra SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE, 1794
WILLIAM BLAKE: »The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees.«
Fra LETTER TO REVD. DR. TRUSLER, 1799