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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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William Morris
Age: 62 †
Born: 1834
Born: March 24
Died: 1896
Died: October 3
Wilcumestowe
William M. Morris
Imagination
Pattern
Beauty
Contempt
Quality
Possess
Three
Qualities
Order
Reasonable
Must
Patterns
Work
Raised
Men
Design
Ornamental

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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.
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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.
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Art made by the people for the people, as a joy to the maker and the user.
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Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement.
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Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures.
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A pattern is either right or wrong...it is no stronger than its weakest point.
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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.
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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.
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To happy folkAll heaviest words no more of meaning bearThan far-off bells saddening the Summer air.
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Forsooth, brethren, fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is hell fellowship is life and lack of fellowship is death and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye do them.
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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.
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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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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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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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There is no single policy to which one can point and say - this built the Morris business. I should think I must have made not less than one thousand decisions in each of the last ten years. The success of a business is the result of the proportion of right decisions by the executive in charge.
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The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.
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