Sage Sayings

— William Blake — All the following are from "Proverbs of Hell" of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake, Northrop Frye (ed.):

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.
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A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
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No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
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The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
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Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
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Excess of sorrow laughs, Excess of joy weeps.
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The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
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What is now proved was once only imagined.
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Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
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You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Listen to the fool's reproach! it is a kingly title!
....The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
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If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
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As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
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Exuberance is Beauty.
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Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
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Enough! or Too Much.