Quote: The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. [William Morris]
Quote: Give me love and work - these two only. [William Morris]
Quote: History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; Art has remembered the people, because they created. [William Morris]
Quote: 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; and if I were further asked to name the production next in importance and the thing next to be longed for; I should answer; A beautiful Book. To enjoy good houses and good books in self-respect and decent comfort, seems to me to be the pleasurable end towards which all societies of human beings ought now to struggle. [William Morris]
Quote: I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few. [William Morris]
Quote: A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works. [William Morris]
Quote: 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]
Quote: Had she come all the way for this, / To part at last without a kiss? [William Morris]
Quote: If you cannot learn to love real art; at least learn to hate sham art and reject it . . . because these are but the outward symbols of the poison that lies within them. [William Morris]
Quote: It took me years to understand that words are often as important as experience, because words make experience last. [William Morris]
Quote: So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die. [William Morris]
Quote: When a writer knows home in his heart, his heart must remain subtly apart from it. He must always be a stranger to the place he loves, and its people. [William Morris]
Quote: His claim to his home is deep, but there are too many ghosts. He must absorb without being absorbed. [William Morris]
Quote: Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of defeat, and when it comes it turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. [William Morris]
Quote: When he understands, as few others do, something of his home that is funny, or sad, or tragic, or cruel, or beautiful, or true, he knows he must do so as a stranger. [William Morris]
Quote: Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time, / Why should I strive to set the crooked straight? / Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme / Beats with light wing against the ivory gate, / Telling a tale not too importunate. [William Morris]
Quote: Memory and imagination help [a man] as he works. Not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past ages guide his hands; and, as part of the human race, he creates. [William Morris]
Quote: I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love. It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigor of the earlier world? [William Morris]
Quote: He did not die in the night, / He did not die in the day, / But in the morning twilight / His spirit passed away. [William Morris]
Quote: Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry,
And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth,
While we the living our lives are giving
To bring the bright new world to birth. [William Morris]
Quote: I hope that we shall have leisure from war, -- war commercial, as well as war of the bullet and the bayonet; leisure from the knowledge that darkens counsel; leisure above all from the greed of money, and the craving for that overwhelming distinction that money now brings: I believe that, as we have even now partly achieved liberty , so we shall achieve equality , and best of all, fraternity , and so have leisure from poverty and all its griping, sordid cares. [William Morris]
Quote: Masters, I have to tell a tale of woe,
A tale of folly and of wasted life,
Hope against hope, the bitter dregs of strife,
Ending, where all things end, in death at last. [William Morris]
Quote: If we feel the least degradation in being amorous, or merry or hungry, or sleepy, we are so far bad animals & miserable men. [William Morris]
Quote: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. [William Morris]
Quote: If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. [William Morris]