Quotessence
Home / Authors / William Morris
William Morris

William Morris Quotes

Artist

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtIfsMenDesignInterior DesignMayWorldShouldHandsBeautiful

Famous William Morris Quotes

“Wealth is what Nature gives us and what a reasonable man can make out of the gifts of Nature for his reasonable use. The sunlight, the fresh air, the unspoiled face of the earth, food, raiment and housing necessary and decent; the storing up of knowledge of all kinds, and the power of disseminating it; means of free communication between man and man; works of art, the beauty which man creates when he is most a man, most aspiring and thoughtful--all things which serve the pleasure of people ... This is wealth. Nor can I think of anything worth having which does not come under one or other of these heads. But think, I beseech you, of the product of ... the workshop of the world, and will you not be bewildered, as I am, at the thought of the mass of things which no sane man could desire, but which our useless toil makes -- and sells?”

NatureWealth
Author:William Morris
Create image

“Yea, and thy deeds shall thou know, and great shall thy gladness be; As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see, And know that thou too wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste; A God in the golden hall, a God on the rain-swept waste, A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain: And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened again: And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill; Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to fill; By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told In the hall of the happy Baldur: nor there shall the tale grow old Of the days before the changing, e'en those that over us pass. So harden thine heart, O brother, and set thy brow as the brass!”

NostalgiaHeroismNorseAnaphora
Book:The Saga of the Volsungs
Create image

“Zanaatkar kendi eliyle tasarladığı şekliyle nesneyi öylesine doğal ve bilinçli bir çaba olmadan süslerdi ki, ortaya çıkardığı işin salt faydacı kısmının nerede bittiği dekoratif kısmının nerede başladığını ayırmak sıklıkla güç olurdu. [...] Yapılan tüm çalışmaların haz mührüyle damgalanması demekti. Bunların tamamı, uygarlığın iş anlayışında artık bir hayli kaybolmuş durumda. Eğer bir süse sahip olmak istiyorsanız, özellikle onun için para ödemelisiniz ve işçi de süsü üretmeye zorlanmalıdır, tıpkı diğer eşyaları üretmeye zorlandığı gibi.”

SanatIşZanaatkarSanatkarDekoratifIşçiSüsZanaat
Book:Faydalı İşler, Faydasız Uğraşlar
Create image

“Da tutto ciò che abbiamo letto e sentito dire, è chiaro che nell'ultimo stadio della "civiltà" gli uomini, per quello che riguarda la produzione dei beni, si erano cacciati in un circolo vizioso. Avevano raggiunto una meravigliosa capacità di produzione e, per darle uno sviluppo sempre maggiore, poco per volta avevano creato (o meglio avevano lasciato che si sviluppasse) un complicatissimo sistema di compravendita, che fu chiamato mercato mondiale. Questo mercato mondiale, una volta costituito, costrinse gli uomini a produrre un numero sempre crescente di beni, fossero necessari o no. E così, mentre non potevano esimersi, com'è ovvio, dalla fatica di produrre ciò che era realmente necessario, creavano senza interruzione tutta una serie di oggetti inutili o considerati artificiosamente necessari, i quali, sotto la ferrea legge del mercato mondiale di cui s'è detto, acquistavano la stessa importanza dei prodotti realmente necessari all'esistenza. In questo modo si lasciarono opprimere da un'immensa mole di lavoro, al solo scopo di salvaguardare quel loro squallido sistema. Poi proprio per questa ragione, dal momento che si erano imposti di barcollare sotto il peso orribile di una produzione inutile, diventò loro impossibile considerare il lavoro e i suoi frutti da qualunque altro punto di vista che non fosse l'incessante tentativo di impiegare la minore quantità di lavoro possibile per ogni tipo di prodotto, e allo stesso tempo di produrre quanti più oggetti fosse possibile. Tutto veniva sacrificato a quella che si chiamava “la riduzione dei costi di produzione”: la soddisfazione del lavoratore nel compiere il suo lavoro, non solo, ma addirittura il suo più elementare benessere, la salute, l'alimentazione, il vestiario, l'abitazione, il tempo libero, i divertimenti, l'educazione... la sua vita insomma, sulla bilancia non aveva neppure il peso di un granello di sabbia in confronto all'opprimente necessità di produrre a basso costo beni che in gran parte non valeva neanche la pena di produrre. Anzi, […] perfino i ricchi e i potenti, i padroni di quei poveri diavoli si adattavano a vivere in mezzo a viste, rumori e odori, che la natura umana aborre e cerca di sfuggire, per far sì che le loro ricchezze contribuissero al mantenimento di quella immane pazzia. L'intera società era infatti caduta nelle fauci di questo mostro insaziabile, la “produzione a basso costo” e vi era stata spinta dal mercato mondiale.”

ConsumismoGlobalizzazioneProduzione Di Massa
Book:News from Nowhere
Create image

“Love is Enough Love is enough: though the world be a-waning, And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining, Though the skies be too dark for dim eyes to discover The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder, Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder, And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over, Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter: The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.”

WorldEnoughHandsEyeFearVoiceDarkLove IsWonderSeaFeetSkyLoversDrawsShadowFairsGoldLipsDeedsWoodsComplainingCupsHillsThis DayVoidWearyComplaintsVeilsDaisiesBloomingThese EyesEnough Love
Book:Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough
Create image

“So I say, if you cannot learn to love real art; at least learn to hate sham art and reject it. It is not because the wretched thing is so ugly and silly and useless that I ask you to cast it from you; it is much more because these are but the outward symbols of the poison that lies within them; look through them and see all that has gone to their fashioning, and you will see how vain labour, and sorrow, and disgrace have been their companions from the first-and all this for trifles that no man really needs!”

IfsMenNeedsFirstsLooksHas BeensArtRealPoliticalLyingHateAsksPoliticsGoneSorrowCastsUglySillySymbolsUselessVainPoisonLabourRejectsCompanionWretchedDisgraceTrifles
Book:The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris
Create image

“In Prison Wearily, drearily, Half the day long, Flap the great banners High over the stone; Strangely and eerily Sounds the wind's song, Bending the banner-poles. While, all alone, Watching the loophole's spark, Lie I, with life all dark, Feet tethered, hands fettered Fast to the stone, The grim walls, square lettered With prisoned men's groan. Still strain the banner-poles Through the wind's song, Westward the banner rolls Over my wrong.”

MenLifeLongStillsHandsLyingSongSoundDarkHalfFeetWindWallStonesPrisonSparksSquaresStrainGrimAll AloneBannerBendingLoopholes
Book:Collected Works
Create image

“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.”

LifeStillsKnowingGreenHatedLeafsGreen Leaves
Book:September: The death of Paris; The land east of the sun and west of the moon. October: The story of Accontius and Cydippe; The man who never laughed again. November: The story of Rhodope; The lovers of Gudrun
Create image

“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.”

MightLastsPastAirSkyLateFairsWinterWoeFebruary
Book:The Earthly Paradise: December: The golden apples; The fostering of Aslaug. January: Bellerophon at Argos; The ring given to Venus. February: Bellerophon in Lycia; The hill of Venus. Epilogue. L'envoi
Create image

“...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.”

IfsArtHouseDesignClothesWorks Of ArtHouseholdFurnitureWretchedInterior DesignDegradingUtensils
Book:The Collected Works of William Morris: Hopes and fears for art. Lectures on art and industry
Create image

“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.”

IfsReasonFeelingsLinesNiceEffectsWallDependsBalanceQuietPatternsArchitectureJudgementVerticalHorizontalGood Judgement
Author:William Morris
Create image

“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?”

HeartHandsLonelinessStrangeFairsEternityVoidDreadRestlessNovemberSealsRestless HeartLiving Once
Book:Selected poems
Create image

“Whiles in the early Winter eve We pass amid the gathering night Some homestead that we had to leave Years past; and see its candles bright Shine in the room beside the door Where we were merry years agone But now must never enter more, As still the dark road drives us on. E'en so the world of men may turn At even of some hurried day And see the ancient glimmer burn Across the waste that hath no way; Then with that faint light in its eyes A while I bid it linger near And nurse in wavering memories The bitter-sweet of days that were.”

MenWorldWayYearsMayStillsLightEyePastNightTurnsMemoriesDarkRoomsDoorsSweetWasteShiningWinterAncientBitterNurseCandleGatheringMerryWaveringBitter SweetYears Past
Book:The House of the Wolfings: A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark
Create image