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Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement.

William Morris

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William Morris
Age: 62 †
Born: 1834
Born: March 24
Died: 1896
Died: October 3
Wilcumestowe
William M. Morris
Barest
Refinement
Simplicity
Misery
Foundation
Simple
Even
Life
Housemaids

More quotes by William Morris

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Large or small, [the garden] should be orderly and rich. It should be well fenced from the outside world. It should by no means imitate either the willfulness or the wildness of nature, but should look like a thing never to be seen except near the house. It should, in fact, look like part of the house.
William Morris
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Ornamental pattern work, to be raised above the contempt of reasonable men, must possess three qualities: beauty, imagination and order.
William Morris
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My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another.
William Morris
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No pattern should be without some sort of meaning.
William Morris
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I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.
William Morris
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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
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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.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.
William Morris
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You may hang your walls with tapestry insread of whitewash or paper or you may cover them with mosaic or have them frescoed by a great painter: all this is not luxury, if it be done for beauty's sake, and not for show: it does not break our golden rule: Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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Love is enough: though the world be a-waning, And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining.
William Morris
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Artists cannot help themselves they are driven to create by their nature, but for that nature to truly thrive, we need to preserve the precious habitat in which that beauty can flourish.
William Morris
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The wind is not helpless for any man's need, Nor falleth the rain but for thistle and weed.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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As to the garden, it seems to me its chief fruit is-blackbirds.
William Morris
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Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris