William Blake

The hours of folly are measured by the clock but of wisdom, no clock can measure.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

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.

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.

Travelers repose and dream among my leaves.

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?

Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.

What is a wife and what is a harlot? What is a church and what is a theatre? are they two and not one? Can they exist separate? Are not religion and politics the same thing? Brotherhood is religion. O demonstrations of reason dividing families in cruelty and pride!

Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

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.

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.

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

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.

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise.