Great Throughts Treasury

"He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars: general good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars."

"He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star."

"Hear the voice of the bard! Who present, past, and future sees; whose ears have heard the holy word that walked among the ancient trees."

"He's a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he Can't Percieve And he's a Fool who tries to make such a Blockhead believe."

"His little throat labors with inspiration, every feather on throat and breast and wings vibrates with the effluence divine."

"Hold infinity in the palm of your hand."

"How can the bird that is born for joy sit in a cage and sing? How can a child, when fears annoy, but droop his tender wing, and forget his youthful spring?"

"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?"

"How have you left the ancient love that bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!"

"How the chimney-sweepers cry every blackening church appalls, and the hapless soldiers sigh runs in blood down palace walls"

"Humility is only doubt, and does the sun and moon blot out."

"I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love."

"I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons and Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life."

"I asked a thief to steal me a peach: he turned up his eyes. I asked a lithe lady to lie her down: holy and meek, she cries. As soon as I went an angel came. He winked at the thief and smiled at the dame— and without one word said had a peach from the tree, and still as a maid enjoyed the lady."

"I can look at the knot in a piece of wood until it frightens me."

"I care not whether a man is good or evil; all that I care is whether he is a wise man or a fool. Go! Put off holiness, and put on intellect."

"I cry, love! Love! Love! Happy, happy love! Free as the mountain wind!"

"I die, I die! the mother said, my children die for lack of bread."

"I do not like the man's face. He looks as if he will live to be hanged."

"I feel that a man may be happy in this world. And I know that this world is a world of imagination and vision."

"I have mental joys and mental health, mental friends and mental wealth, I've a wife that I love and that loves me; I've all but riches bodily."

"''I have no name:'' I am but two days old. ''What shall I call thee?'' I happy am, ''Joy is my name.'' sweet joy befall thee!"

"I know it's long, but the whole thing is my favorite literary anything--it's from the four zoas. I am made to sow the thistle for wheat; the nettle for a nourishing dainty I have planted a false oath in the earth, it has brought forth a poison tree I have chosen the serpent for a counselor and the dog for a schoolmaster to my children I have blotted out from light and living the dove and the nightingale and I have caused the earthworm to beg from door to door I have taught the thief a secret path into the house of the just I have taught pale artifice to spread his nets upon the morning my heavens are brass my earth is iron my moon a clod of clay my sun a pestilence burning at noon and a vapor of death in night what is the price of experience do men buy it for a song or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price of all that a man hath his house his wife his children wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy and in the withered field where the farmer plows for bread in vain it is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun and in the vintage and to sing on the wagon loaded with corn it is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted to speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer to listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season when the red blood is filled with wine and with the marrow of lambs it is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements to hear a dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan to see a God on every wind and a blessing on every blast to hear the sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house to rejoice in the blight that covers his field, and the sickness that cuts off his children while our olive and vine sing and laugh round our door and our children bring fruits and flowers then the groans and the dolor are quite forgotten and the slave grinding at the mill and the captive in chains and the poor in the prison, and the soldier in the field when the shattered bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead it is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity thus could I sing and thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!"

"I looked for my soul but my soul I could not see. I looked for my God but my God eluded me. I looked for a friend and then I found all three."

"I love laughing."

"I myself do nothing. The holy spirit accomplishes all through me."

"I rest not from my great task! To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes of Man | Inwards into the Worlds of Thought; Into eternity, ever expanding In the Bosom of God, The Human Imagination"

"I see everything I paint in this world, but everybody does not see alike. 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."

"I see the fourfold man; the humanity in deadly sleep, and its fallen emanation, the spectre and its cruel shadow. I see the past, present, and future existing all at once before me."

"I sometimes try to be miserable that I may do more work, but find it is a foolish experiment."

"I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my god, but my god eluded me. I sought my brother, and I found all three."

"I thought love lived in the hot sunshine, but o, he lives in the moony light! I thought to find love in the heat of day, but sweet love is the comforter of night."

"I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart, trembling, cold, in ghastly fears— ah, she doth depart."

"I travel’d thro' a land of men a land of men and women too, and heard and saw such dreadful things as cold earth wanderers never knew."

"I turn my back to the east, from whence comforts have increased; for light doth seize my brain with frantic pain."

"I walked abroad in a snowy day; I asked the soft snow with me to play; she played and she melted in all her prime, and the winter called it a dreadful crime."

"I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd thames does flow, and mark in every face I meet marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every man, in every infant's cry of fear, in every voice, in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacles I hear. How the chimney-sweeper's cry every black'ning church appalls; and the hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hear how the youthful harlot's curse blasts the new born infant's tear, and blights with plagues the marriage hearse."

"I was in a printing-house in hell, and saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation."

"I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity."

"I will not cease from mental fight nor shall my sword sleep in my hand."

"I will not reason and compare my business is to create."

"If a thing loves, it is infinite."

"If heaven send no supplies, the fairest blossom of the garden dies."

"If others had not been foolish, we should be so."

"If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning."

"If the sun and moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out."

"If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out."

"If thought is life and strength and breath, and the want of thought is death; then am I a happy fly, if I live, or if I die."

"If you have any friendship for me, be my enemy."

"If you have form'd a circle to go into, go into it yourself and see how you would do."