Selected proverbs from "The Marriage of Heaven & Hell"
by William Blake
A Memorable Fancy
As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the
enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and
insanity, I collected some of their Proverbs; thinking that as
the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the Proverbs
of Hell shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any
description of buildings or garments.
Proverbs Of Hell
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery. Shame is Prides cloke.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of
Religion.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
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 believed is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn
of the crow.
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.
Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow. nor the
lion, the horse; how he shall take his prey.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight can never be defiled.
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs
on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
The best wine is the oldest. the best water the newest.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the
contemptible.
The crow wished every thing was black, the owl, that every thing
was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without
Improvement are roads of Genius.
Sooner murder an Infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not believed.
Enough! or Too much
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William Blake: late 18th century poet-philosopher, artist,
engraver, commercial printer, family man. "Blake had therefore
reached the extremity of humanism, an attitude which seemed to
his contemporaries, startled by so revolutionary a mode of
thought, to be explicable only as a form of insanity." --
Geoffrey Keynes.
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As always ...
The author of this posting is not witting to its content,
and I am not my uid. Think for yourself. Don't take
shit from nobody.
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-- TAZ 1X