William Morris Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of William Morris's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Artist William Morris's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 84 quotes on this page collected since March 24, 1834! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • If there is a reason for keeping the wall very quiet, choose a pattern that works all over without pronounced lines...Put very succinctly, architectural effect depends upon a nice balance of horizontal, vertical and oblique. No rules can say how much of each; so nothing can really take the place of feeling and good judgement.

    Wall  
  • I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.

    Art  
    William Morris, Norman Kelvin (1999). “William Morris on Art and Socialism”, p.17, Courier Corporation
  • I think the thing that impressed me is (AT&T CEO Michael) Armstrong's strategic vision and the fact that he's got John Malone (TCI's chairman) to go along. There's a real commitment to build a new AT&T.

  • If you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.

    Art   Hate  
    William Morris (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of William Morris (Illustrated)”, p.6494, Delphi Classics
  • Yea, I have looked, and seen November there; The changeless seal of change it seemed to be, Fair death of things that, living once, were fair; Bright sign of loneliness too great for me, Strange image of the dread eternity, In whose void patience how can these have part, These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart?

    William Morris, Peter Faulkner (2002). “Selected Poems”, p.96, Taylor & Francis
  • There is no single policy to which one can point and say - this built the Morris business. I should think I must have made not less than one thousand decisions in each of the last ten years. The success of a business is the result of the proportion of right decisions by the executive in charge.

  • O thrush, your song is passing sweet, But never a song that you have sung Is half so sweet as thrushes sang When my dear love and I were young.

    Song  
    "Other Days". "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations", 10th edition, 1919.
  • There was a knight came riding by In early spring, when the roads were dry; And he heard that lady sing at the noon, Two red roses across the moon.

    William Morris (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of William Morris (Illustrated)”, p.2676, Delphi Classics
  • The heart desires, the hand refrains. The Godhead fires, the soul attains.

    Art  
    William Morris (2002). “The Earthly Paradise”, p.12, Psychology Press
  • Do not be afraid of large patterns, if properly designed they are more restful to the eye than small ones: on the whole, a pattern where the structure is large and the details much broken up is the most useful...very small rooms, as well as very large ones, look better ornamented with large patterns.

  • So I say, if you cannot learn to love real art; at least learn to hate sham art and reject it. It is not because the wretched thing is so ugly and silly and useless that I ask you to cast it from you; it is much more because these are but the outward symbols of the poison that lies within them; look through them and see all that has gone to their fashioning, and you will see how vain labour, and sorrow, and disgrace have been their companions from the first-and all this for trifles that no man really needs!

    Art   Lying   Hate  
    William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.150, Cambridge University Press
  • If i were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, A beautiful House.

    Art  
  • A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.

  • Earth, left silent by the wind of night,Seems shrunken 'neath the gray unmeasured height.

    William Morris (1871). “The Earthly Paradise: A Poem”, p.2
  • When Socialism comes, it may be in such a form that we won't like it.

  • Beauty, which is what is meant by art, using the word in its widest sense, is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life.

    Art  
    William Morris, Norman Kelvin (1999). “William Morris on Art and Socialism”, p.37, Courier Corporation
  • The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.

    Art  
    William Morris, Norman Kelvin (1999). “William Morris on Art and Socialism”, p.52, Courier Corporation
  • Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement; a sanded floor and whitewashed walls and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside; or a grimy palace amid the same with a regiment of housemaids always working to smear the dirt together so that it may be unnoticed; which, think you, is the most refined, the most fit for a gentleman of those two dwellings?

    Wall  
    William Morris (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of William Morris (Illustrated)”, p.6494, Delphi Classics
  • By God! I will not tell you more to-day, Judge any way you will - what matters it?

    William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.10, Cambridge University Press
  • I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.

    A Dream of John Ball ch. 4 (1888)
  • Slayer of the winter, art thou here again? O welcome, thou that bring'st the summer nigh! The bitter wind makes not the victory vain. Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.

    Art  
    William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.82, Cambridge University Press
  • Speak not, move not, but listen, the sky is full of gold. No ripple on the river, no stir in field or fold, All gleams but naught doth glisten, but the far-off unseen sea. Forget days past, heart broken, put all memory by! No grief on the green hillside, no pity in the sky, Joy that may not be spoken fills mead and flower and tree.

  • Between complete socialism and communism there is no difference whatever in my mind.Communism is in fact the completion of socialism; when that ceases to be militant and becomes triumphant, it will be communism.

    William Morris (1984). “Political writings of William Morris”, Lawrence & Wishart Ltd
  • We are only the trustees for those who come after us.

  • History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.

    Art  
    William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.32, Cambridge University Press
  • One man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a madman: two men with the same idea in common may be foolish, but can hardly be mad; ten men sharing an idea begin to act, a hundred draw attention as fanatics, a thousand and society begins to tremble, a hundred thousand and there is war abroad, and the cause has victories tangible and real; and why only a hundred thousand? Why not a hundred million and peace upon the earth? You and I who agree together, it is we who have to answer that question.

    William Morris, Norman Kelvin (1999). “William Morris on Art and Socialism”, p.127, Courier Corporation
  • Late February days; and now, at last, Might you have thought that Winter's woe was past; So fair the sky was and so soft the air.

    William Morris (1871). “The Earthly Paradise: December: The golden apples; The fostering of Aslaug. January: Bellerophon at Argos; The ring given to Venus. February: Bellerophon in Lycia; The hill of Venus. Epilogue. L'envoi”, p.368
  • Death have we hated, knowing not what it meant; Life we have loved, through green leaf and through sere, Though still the less we knew of its intent.

    Life  
    William Morris (1871). “September: The death of Paris; The land east of the sun and west of the moon. October: The story of Accontius and Cydippe; The man who never laughed again. November: The story of Rhodope; The lovers of Gudrun”, p.400
  • Speak but one word to me.

    William Morris (1858). “The defence of Guenevere and other poems”, p.246
  • A pattern is either right or wrong...it is no stronger than its weakest point.

    William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.110, Cambridge University Press
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 84 quotes from the Artist William Morris, starting from March 24, 1834! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!