William Butler Yeats Quotes
The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.
Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.
One man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.
It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.
Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.
That toil of growing up; The ignominy of boyhood; the distress Of boyhood changing into man; The unfinished man and his pain.
All that I have said and done, Now that I am old and ill, Turns into a question till I lie awake night after night And never get the answers right.
Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.
Joy is of the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.
Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.
Wine enters through the mouth, Love, the eyes. I raise the glass to my mouth, I look at you, I sigh.
It takes more courage to dig deep in the dark corners of your own soul and the back alleys of your society than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.
I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.
The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.
I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.
If what I say resonates with you, it's merely because we're branches of the same tree.
Sometimes my feet are tired and my hands are quiet, but there is no quiet in my heart.
Gaze no more in the bitter glass The demons, with their subtle guile, Lift up before us when they pass, Or only gaze a little while.
I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die.
When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.
The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
A statesman is an easy man, he tells his lies by rote. A journalist invents his lies, and rams them down your throat. So stay at home and drink your beer and let the neighbors vote.
Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.
On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!
Life moves out of a red flare of dreams Into a common light of common hours, Until old age brings the red flare again.