Excerpts from William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”

Excerpts from William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell”
 
“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.”
 
“The most sublime act is to set another before you.”
 
“Folly is the cloak of knavery.”
 
“What is now proved was once only imagined.”
 
“He who has suffered you to impose on him knows you.”
 
“Expect poison from the standing water.”
 
“You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
 
“To create a little flower is the labour of ages.”
 
“Damn braces; bless relaxes.” *
 
“As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.”

*Havelock Ellis' Impressions and Comments, November 1, 1912, "...The time(i.e. the early Victorian period) demanded that its preachers should take their text from the spiritually excessive Blake: 'Damn braces, bless relaxes.'... But nowadays that seems a long time ago. The great preacher of to-day cannot react against the attraction to braces, for it no longer exists. We are all quite ready to 'damn braces.' The moralist, therefore, may now legitimately hold the balance fair and firm, without giving it a little pressure in one direction for wholesome ends of admonition(i.e. a gentle caution; a mild rebuke; an advice with a hint of scolding to guide someone toward better conduct or to avoid danger;勸誡). 

When we so look at the matter we have to realise that, biologically and morally alike, healthy restraint is needed for 'the flourishing of the spirit' quite as much as healthy exercise; that bracing as well as relaxing is part of the soul's hygiene... 

...Every age needs new freedoms and new restraints."