Blake’s Proverbs of Hell
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, woman friendship.
What is now proved was once only imagin’d.
The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
One thought fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believ’d is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
The fox provides for himself. but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Expect poison from the standing water.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
The crow wish’d every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ’d.
Enough! or Too much.
Selected from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Levity.com