Proverbs of Hell

• In seed time learn; in harvest teach; in winter enjoy.
• Drive your cart and your plough 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 plough.
• Dip him in the river who loves water.
• A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
• He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
• Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
• The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
• The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of wisdom no clock can measure.
• All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap.
• Bring out number, weight and measure in a year of dearth.
• No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
• A dead body revenges not injuries.
• 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 cloak of knavery.
• Shame is Pride's cloak.
• Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
• The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
• The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
• The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
• The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
• Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
• The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
• The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
• Joys impregnate: Sorrows bring forth.
• Let man wear the fell of the lion, woman the fleece of the sheep.
• The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
• The selfish smiling fool and the sullen frowning fool shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
• What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
• The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots; the lion, the tiger, the horse, the elephant watch the fruits.
• The cistern contains, the fountain overflows.
• One thought fills immensity.
• Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
• Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
• The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
• The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
• Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the Night.
• He who has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you.
• As the plough follows words, so God rewards prayers.
• The tigers 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 fool's reproach: it is a kingly title.
• The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
• 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.
• The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
• If others had not been foolish, we should be so.
• The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
• When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius: lift up thy head!
• As a caterpillar 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.
• Damn braces. Bless relaxes.
• The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
• Prayers plough not! Praises reap not!
• Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!
• The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands and feet Proportion.
• As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
• The crow wish'd everything was black, the owl that everything was white.
• Exuberance is Beauty.
• If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
• Improvement makes straight 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 as to be understood, and not be believ'd.

Enough or Too much.

by William Blake