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21 " A Robin Redbreast in a CagePuts all Heaven in a Rage.A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeonsShudders Hell thro’ all its regions.A Dog starv’d at his Master’s GatePredicts the ruin of the State.A Horse misus’d upon the RoadCalls to Heaven for Human blood.Each outcry of the hunted HareA fiber from the Brain does tear. "
― William Blake
22 " But to go to school in a summer morn,O! It drives all joy away;Under a cruel eye outworn,The little ones spend the dayIn sighing and dismay. "
23 " How can the bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?How can a child, when fears annoy,But droop his tender wing,And forget his youthful spring? "
― William Blake , Songs of Innocence and of Experience
24 " I give you the end of a golden string,Only wind it into a ball,It will lead you in at Heaven's gateBuilt in Jerusalem's wall. "
25 " If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out. "
26 " 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 some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. "
27 " Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius. "
― William Blake , The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: In Full Color
28 " And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires. "
29 " The Devil answer'd: bray a fool in a morter with wheat, yet shall not his folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? murder those who were murder'd because of him? turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of others to support him? bear false witness when he omitted making a defense before Pilate? covet when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules. "
30 " But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine. "
31 " He who replies to words of doubtdoth put the light of knowledge out. "
― William Blake ,
32 " May God us keepFrom Single vision and Newton's sleep. "
33 " How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing? "
34 " Did he who made the lamb make thee? "
― William Blake , The Tyger
35 " Man has no Body distinct from his soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. "
36 " When nations grow old the Arts grow coldAnd commerce settles on every tree "
37 " The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is No such thing as Inspiration & that any Man of a plain Understanding may by Thieving from Others become a Mich Angelo. "
38 " Thou art a manGod is no moreThy own humanityLearn to adore "
39 " My mother groaned, my father wept,into the dangerous world I leapt. "
40 " Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth. "
― William Blake , Proverbs of Hell