12 William Blake Quotes on Society

William Blake quotes on society

8. Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade, Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.

67. Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion.

84. 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.

103. 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.

104. 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.

109. Children of the future Age Reading this indignant page, Know that in a former time Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.

110. Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face; Terror the human form divine, And Secrecy the human dress.

127. A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state.

135. The harlot's cry from street to street Shall weave old England's winding sheet.

144. Poetry fettered fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed, or flourish, in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish!

147. What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church & What Is a Theatre? are they Two & not One? can they Exist Separate? Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is Religion O Demonstrations of Reason Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!

157. It is not at all certain that a merely moral criticism of society may not be just as 'revolutionary' - and revolution, after all, means turning things upside down - as the politico-economic criticism which is fashionable at this moment. Blake was not a politician, but there is more understanding of the nature of capitalist society in a poem like 'I wander through each charter'd street' than in three-quarters of Socialist literature.