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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

More quotes by William Morris

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Yea, I have looked, and seen November there The changeless seal of change it seemed to be, Fair death of things that, living once, were fair Bright sign of loneliness too great for me, Strange image of the dread eternity, In whose void patience how can these have part, These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart?
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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As to the garden, it seems to me its chief fruit is-blackbirds.
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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
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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.
William Morris
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Earth, left silent by the wind of night,Seems shrunken 'neath the gray unmeasured height.
William Morris
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Forgetfulness of grief I yet may gainIn some wise may come ending to my painIt may be yet the Gods will have me glad!Yet, Love, I would that thee and pain I had!
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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A pattern is either right or wrong...it is no stronger than its weakest point.
William Morris
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A world made to be lost, - A bitter life 'twixt pain and nothing tost.
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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My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another.
William Morris
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There was a knight came riding by In early spring, when the roads were dry And he heard that lady sing at the noon, Two red roses across the moon.
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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...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.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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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.
William Morris
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If we feel the least degradation in being amorous, or merry or hungry, or sleepy, we are so far bad animals & miserable men.
William Morris
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I half wish that I had not been born with a sense of romance and beauty in this accursed age.
William Morris
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It is the childlike part of us that produces works of the imagination. When we were children time passed so slow with us that we seemed to have time for everything.
William Morris