Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of Genius.

William Blake

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

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More information about this quote

Topic

Genius Incremental improvement Progress

Author

William Blake

Source

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Medium

Poem

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1793 1790s 18th century

Occupation

Artist Poet Writer

From

United Kingdom Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Blake, William. "Proverbs of Hell." The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. c. 1790.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman. University of California Press, 2008.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by William Blake

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.

William Blake

More information about this quote
Topic
Letting go

Author

William Blake
Medium
Poem
Statement Type
Paradox
Language
English
Time
1792 1790s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Blake, William. Poem written in his notebook. c. 1792.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "Eternity." William Blake: Selected Poems, edited by Nicholas Shrimpton. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Another quote from the 1790s

Cultivating whatever gave pleasure to my senses was always the chief business of my life; I have never found any occupation more important. Feeling that I was born for the sex opposite to mine, I have always loved it and done all I could to make myself loved by it.

Giacomo Casanova

Histoire de Ma Vie

More information about this quote
Topic
Pursuing women

Author

Giacomo Casanova
Source
Histoire de Ma Vie
Genre
Autobiography and memoir
Language
French
Time
1791 1790s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. Aus den Memoiren des Venetianers Jacob Casanova de Seingalt [From the Memoirs of the Venetian Jacob Casanova de Seingalt]. Vol. 1, Leipzig: Brodhaus, 1822, preface.

Current Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. History of My Life, vols. 1-2, translated by Willard R. Trask. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966.

Another quote about Progress

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

More information about this quote
Topic
Activism Political progress Social progress Progress
Speaker
Frederick Douglass
Source
West India Emancipation
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
English
Time
1857 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "West India Emancipation." 3 Aug. 1857, Canandaigua, NY, USA.

Another quote of the following type Metaphor, analogy and simile

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Immanuel Kant

More information about this quote
Topic
Imperfection Human nature

Author

Immanuel Kant
Source
Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose
Medium
Essay
Genre
Philosophical literature
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
German
Time
1784 1780s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Citation

Kant, Immanuel. "Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht [Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose]." Berlinische Monatsschrift, Nov. 1784.