“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

• Mind
• Perception
• Vision

“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

• Imagination
• Perception
• Vision

“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

• Perception
• Reality
• Vision

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”

The object is shared; the seeing is not · Proverbs of Hell, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

• Nature
• Perception
• Wisdom

“How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?”

Ordinary creatures may hide vast interiors our senses cannot enter · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

• Animals
• Perception
• Wonder

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Limitation is self-made; infinity is the unfiltered real · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

• Imagination
• Infinity
• Perception

“Man's perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception; he perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.”

The senses are windows, not walls · There is No Natural Religion, 1788

• Imagination
• Perception
• Senses

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way.”

Nature is never merely botanical to the imaginative eye · Letter to the Rev. Dr John Trusler, 23 August 1799

• Joy
• Nature
• Perception

“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.”

Value and beauty are shaped by the desire that looks at them · Letter to the Rev. Dr John Trusler, 23 August 1799

• Beauty
• Desire
• Perception

“I know that this World is a World of Imagination & Vision. I see Every thing I paint In This World, but Every body does not see alike.”

Perception follows the inner life of the beholder rather than a single outer fact · Letter to the Rev. Dr John Trusler, 23 August 1799

• Imagination
• Perception
• Vision

“What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care.”

A defence of visionary art against those who demand easy explanation · Letter to the Rev. Dr John Trusler, 23 August 1799

• Art
• Imagination
• Perception