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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.

William Morris

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William Morris
Age: 62 †
Born: 1834
Born: March 24
Died: 1896
Died: October 3
Wilcumestowe
William M. Morris
Poem
Shut
Better
Chap
Good
Chaps
Never
Weaving
Tapestry
Compose
Epic

More quotes by William Morris

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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.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed art has remembered the people, because they created.
William Morris
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I know a little garden close Set thick with lily and red rose, Where I would wander if I might From dewy dawn to dewy night. And have one with me wandering.
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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If you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.
William Morris
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Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures.
William Morris
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The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.
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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I am going your way, so let us go hand in hand. You help me and I'll help you. We shall not be here very long ... so let us help one another while we may.
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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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
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The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.
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
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By God! I will not tell you more to-day, Judge any way you will - what matters it?
William Morris
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Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung.
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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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.
William Morris
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It is for him that is lonely or in prison to dream of fellowship, but for him that is of a fellowship to do and not to dream.
William Morris
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Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.
William Morris