William Morris Quotes

The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.

Art made by the people for the people, as a joy to the maker and the user.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

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.

There is no excuse for doing anything which is not strikingly beautiful.

The past is not dead, it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make.

No pattern should be without some sort of meaning.

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.

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.

My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another.

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement.

What I mean by Socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man, neither idle nor overworked, neither brain­slack brain workers, nor heart­sick hand workers, in a word, in which all men would be living in equality of condition, and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all - the realisation at last of the meaning of the word 'commonwealth.'

History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.

We are only the trustees for those who come after us.

I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.

No man is good enough to be another's master.

Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.

Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung.

What is an artist but a workman who is determined that, whatever else happens, his work shall be excellent?

The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.

Give me love and work - these two only.

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.

I half wish that I had not been born with a sense of romance and beauty in this accursed age.

Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures.

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.