"If a thing loves, it is infinite"

When considering the statement “If a thing loves, it is infinite” by William Blake, one is immediately struck by the radical union of finitude and infinity he proposes. The act of loving, in his vision, grants limitless depth to even the smallest or most ordinary of things. Love becomes the alchemical element, enabling mortal forms, objects, people, creatures, to transcend their natural boundaries. To love, for Blake, is not merely an emotional state but a creative power, drawing those who love into the eternal.

Blake’s worldview recognized the sacredness and boundlessness residing in what seems finite. A flower, a stone, a bird, or a child: all may seem restricted by spatial and temporal existence. When love enters their being, however, they participate in something unmeasured and immeasurable. Love stretches beyond logical quantification, dissolving edges, connecting individuals with the cosmos. The one who loves, or the thing infused with love, becomes inexhaustible, part of the universal continuum. For Blake, infinity is less a concept measured by endless extension than a quality woven into the texture of experience through acts of love.

Notably, this perception challenges the materialistic or rational worldview that equates value to size, power, or duration. Love bestows another kind of magnitude: not size but depth, not time but transcendence of time. Through love, the smallest gesture or simplest creature is rendered as vast and meaningful as the universe itself. Such a view cultivates reverence for all forms of existence, however humble.

Blake’s aphorism suggests a moral imperative, as well. To nurture the capacity to love, and to recognize it in all things, is to participate in the infinite fabric of reality. When love animates existence, every being becomes a portal to the divine, and even the most fleeting moment assumes infinite value.