Skip to content

Art Quotes by William Blake

40 Art quotes by William Blake

All Art quotes William Blake’s page

Blake warns that money can choke art and that a true artist must create rather than copy. He calls the suppression of imagination a great crime and speaks of a spiritual muse that drives poetry. His poem “The Sick Rose” shows how hidden forces can corrupt beauty.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

The mocker of Art is the mocker of Jesus.

Image

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.

Image

Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on.

Image

None but blockheads copy each other.

Image

What has reason to do with the art of painting?

Image

The Whole Business of Man is The Arts, & All Things Common.

Image

Every man who is not an artist is a traitor to his own nature.

Image

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death.

Image

When nations grow old the Arts grow cold And commerce settles on every tree

Image

Works of Art can only be produc'd in Perfection where the Man is either in Affluence or is Above the Care of…

Image

Without Unceasing Practice nothing can be done. Practice is Art. If you leave off you are lost.

Image

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

Image

A musician, an artist, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.

Image

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good…

Image

Harmony of colouring is destructive of art? it is like the smile of a fool.

Image

The ignorant Insults of Individuals will not hinder me from doing my duty to my Art

Image

“The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is…

Image

Rome & Greece swept Art into their maw & destroy'd it; a Warlike State never can produce Art. It will Rob &…

Image

Degrade first the Arts if you'd Mankind Degrade. Hire Idiots to Paint with cold light & hot shade: Give high Price for…

Image

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite,…

Image

The enquiry in England is not whether a man has talents & genius, but whether he is passive & polite & a…

Image

The human mind cannot go beyond the gift of God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that art can go beyond the finest…

Image

The Sick Rose O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found…

Image

“O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed…

Image

To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination, and I feel flattered when I am told so.…

Image

Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history…

Image

Christianity is art and not money. Money is its curse.

Image

Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.

Image

When Sir Joshua Reynolds died All Nature was degraded

Image

First thought is best in Art, second in other matters.

Image

Thou art a man God is no more Thy own humanity Learn to adore

Image

Where there is money there is no art.

Image

Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists

Image

The Old and New Testaments are the Great Code of Art.

Image

Art degraded, Imagination denied.

Image

It is the greatest of crimes to depress true art and science.

Image

Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. God is Jesus.

Image

The inquiry in England is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a…

Image

Little fly, thy summer's play My thoughtless hand has brushed away. Am not I a fly like thee? Or art not thou…

Image

The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art…

Image

Other authors on Art

More by William Blake

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

Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on.

God only acts and is, in existing beings or men.

Kill not the moth nor butterfly, For the Last Judgement draweth nigh.

The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after death of the…

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

Painters are noted for being dissipated and wild.

Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time's swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really…

Cruelty has a human heart, and jealousy a human face. Terror, the human form divine, And secrecy, the human dress.

A dead body revenges not injuries.

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs…

To generalize is to be an idiot.

THE POISON TREE I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe; I…

The bird a nest the spider a web the human friendship