Of rich men it telleth, and strange is the story how they have, and they hanker, and grip far and wide; And they live and they die, and the earth and its glory has been but a burden they scarce might abide.
—William Morris
Topics: Riches, Wealth
Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.
—William Morris
Topics: Arts, Art, Artists
Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement; a sanded floor and whitewashed walls and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside; or a grimy palace amid the same with a regiment of housemaids always working to smear the dirt together so that it may be unnoticed; which, think you, is the most refined, the most fit for a gentleman of those two dwellings?
—William Morris
Topics: Simplicity
Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung.
—William Morris
Topics: Life, Wisdom
Unless people care about carrying on their business without making the world hideous, how can they care about Art?
—William Morris
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
Topics: Protest
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. Not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past ages guide his hands; and, as part of the human race, he creates. If we work thus we shall be men, and our days will be happy and eventful.
—William Morris
Topics: Work
It took me years to understand that words are often as important as experience, because words make experience last
—William Morris
Topics: Experience
I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love. It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigor of the earlier world?
—William Morris
If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris
Topics: Home, Simplicity
When a writer knows home in his heart, his heart must remain subtly apart from it. He must always be a stranger to the place he loves, and its people.
—William Morris
Topics: Home, Writers
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
Topics: Competition
Give me love and work—these two only.
—William Morris
Topics: Work
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Oliver Herford American Writer
- J. B. Priestley British Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
- Algernon Charles Swinburne English Poet
- Coco Chanel French Fashion Designer
- John Howe Canadian Artist
- Corita Kent American Artist
- Joyce Cary English Novelist
- Georges Braque French Painter
- Yoko Ono Japanese Artist, Musician
- Edward Lear English Humorist, Illustrator
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