50 William Blake Quotes That Will Ignite Your Soul

William Blake’s words sweep like lightning: startling, tender, and full of vision. Quotes can reframe a rough morning, steady your resolve, or spark a new way of seeing the world. Keep these lines at hand when you need motivation to act, a reminder of inner truth, or a moment of daily wonder—on your phone, pinned to a journal, or shared with someone who needs light.

Motivational quotes

• "To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower; Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour."
• "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
• "I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's."
• "What is now proved was once only imagined."
• "Great things are done when men and mountains meet."
• "I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In England's green & pleasant land."
• "No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings."
• "Energy is eternal delight."
• "I will not reason and compare: my business is to create."

Inspirational quotes

• "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night—What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
• "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
• "He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise."
• "Exuberance is beauty."
• "A Robin Redbreast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage."
• "A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees."
• "The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself."
• "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship."
• "Bring me my bow of burning gold!"

Life wisdom quotes

• "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."
• "Without contraries is no progression."
• "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."
• "A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent."
• "Joy & woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine."
• "Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion."
• "If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise."
• "Man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

Success quotes

• "Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."
• "The cistern contains; the fountain overflows."
• "One law for the lion and the ox is oppression."
• "The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction."
• "A dog starv'd at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state."
• "A horse misused upon the road calls to heaven for human blood."
• "Eternity is in love with the productions of time."
• "When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears."

Happiness quotes

• "Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care."
• "Love seeketh only self to please, to bind another to its delight."
• "And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury."
• "For everything that lives is holy; life delights in life."
• "Some are born to sweet delight; Some are born to endless night."
• "Little Lamb who made thee?"
• "He is called by thy name, for he calls himself a Lamb."
• "And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright."

Daily inspiration quotes

• "In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear… the mind-forg'd manacles I hear."
• "I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end."
• "I told it not, my wrath did grow."
• "As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."
• "O Rose, thou art sick; The invisible worm That flies in the night."
• "And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins & set them all free."
• "Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death."
• "The fox condemns the trap, not himself."

Blake’s lines cut through the ordinary to reveal a larger life. Keep the ones that move you close: repeat them in hard moments, pin them where you can see them, and let their startling clarity reshape your thinking. A single quote can shift a mood—or a whole day—one line at a time.