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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
Foundation
Simple
Even
Life
Housemaids
Barest
Refinement
Simplicity
Misery

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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.
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Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.
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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.
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...If our houses, or clothes, our household furniture and utensils are not works of art, they are either wretched makeshifts, or, what is worse, degrading shams of better things.
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By God! I will not tell you more to-day, Judge any way you will - what matters it?
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The reward of labour is life. Is that not enough?
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.
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And the deeds that ye do upon this earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye do them.
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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No pattern should be without some sort of meaning.
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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.
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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.
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If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all.
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It has become an article of the creed of modern morality that all labour is good in itself -- a convenient belief to those who live on the labour of others. But as to those on whom they live, I recommend them not to take it on trust, but to look into the matter a little deeper.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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There is no excuse for doing anything which is not strikingly beautiful.
William Morris
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Give me love and work - these two only.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought.
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The past is not dead, it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make.
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