Remarks by William Blake | V2Melody Quotations

Inner possession is claimed against the pity of prosperous visitors · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson

“I live in a hole here, but God has a beautiful mansion for me elsewhere.”

Poverty of rooms is set against amplitude of vision · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson

“That is a horrible doctrine; if another man pay your debt I do not forgive it.”

Forgiveness cannot be hired out to a substitute victim · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson, on vicarious atonement

“We are all co-existent with God — members of the Divine body. We are all partakers of the Divine nature.”

Human life is spoken of as already inside the divine, not approaching it from outside · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson

“He is the only God. And so am I and so are you.”

Christ's divinity is affirmed and then extended to every human being · Conversation recorded by Henry Crabb Robinson, 10 December 1825

“Where any view of Money exists Art cannot be carried on, but War only.”

Commerce and conflict are paired as enemies of making · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“If Morality was Christianity Socrates was the Saviour.”

Ethics alone cannot stand in for the living faith Blake meant by Christianity · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“Jesus & his Apostles & Disciples were all Artists.”

The gospel circle is claimed as a company of makers · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done. Practise is Art. If you leave off you are Lost.”

Art is a daily keeping, not a gift that survives neglect · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death.”

A stark pairing of living image against a knowledge that kills vision · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“The Eternal Body of Man is The Imagination, that is God himself.”

Imagination is named as the divine body shared by humankind · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“Prayer is the Study of Art. Praise is the Practise of Art.”

Devotion and making are treated as one discipline · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“Christianity is Art & not Money. Money is its Curse.”

Faith is identified with creative life and opposed to cash as its blight · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“The Old & New Testaments are the Great Code of Art.”

Scripture is read as a grammar of making, not only of doctrine · Inscriptions on the Laocoön plate

“No man of sense ever supposes that copying from nature is the art of painting; if the art is no more than this, it is no better than any other manual labour.”

Art is invention of mind, not a trade of likeness · Public Address, notebook, c. 1810

“Let it no more be said that empires encourage arts, for it is arts that encourage empires.”

Culture is the parent of power, not its hired servant · Public Address, notebook, c. 1810

“When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do.”

Truth-telling is solidarity with the already seeing, not a conversion campaign · Public Address, notebook, c. 1810

“This world of Imagination is the World of Eternity; it is the divine bosom into which we shall go after the death of the Vegetated body.”

Imagination is not a holiday from life but the lasting country · A Vision of the Last Judgment

“Mental Things are alone Real; what is call'd Corporeal, Nobody Knows of its Dwelling Place: it is in Fallacy & its Existence an Imposture.”

Matter is demoted from substance to a misleading appearance · A Vision of the Last Judgment

“Error is Created. Truth is Eternal. Error or Creation will be Burned Up & then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear.”

Falsehood is perishable manufacture; truth does not need inventing · A Vision of the Last Judgment

“I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight. I look thro it & not with it.”

The eye is a pane of glass, not the seer · A Vision of the Last Judgment

“What, it will be Question'd, When the Sun rises, do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea? O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”

The guinea-sun of common sense is refused for a visionary dawn · A Vision of the Last Judgment

“I assert for My self that I do not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me.”

The visible world is treated as a film over true seeing · A Vision of the Last Judgment

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

Fixed opinion stagnates into mental disease · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

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