William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 13

Quotes about:

• But O, sick children of the world,
  Of all the many changing things
  In dreary dancing past us whirled,
  To the cracked tune that Chronos sings,
  Words alone are certain good.

  William Butler Yeats

  Time, Children, Past

  William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.142, Penguin

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• I am still of opinion that only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood - sex and the dead.

  William Butler Yeats

  Death, Sex, Two

  Letter to Olivia Shakespear, Oct. 1927

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• I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.

  William Butler Yeats

  Truth, War, Thinking

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• I whispered, 'I am too young,' and then, 'I am old enough'; wherefore I threw a penny to find out if I might love.

  William Butler Yeats

  Might, Pennies, Enough

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.79, Wordsworth Editions

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• No art can conquer the people alone-the people are conquered by an ideal of life upheld by authority.

  William Butler Yeats

  Art, People, Conquer

  William Butler Yeats (2010). “Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.362, Simon and Schuster

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• A poet is a good citizen turned inside out.

  William Butler Yeats

  Citizens, Poet, Good Citizen

  "Memoirs".

  13 Copy quote

• Florence Farr once said to me, If we could say to ourselves, with sincerity, 'this passing moment is as good as any I shall ever know,' we could die upon the instant and be united with God.

  William Butler Yeats

  Passing Moments, Florence, Sincerity

  8 Copy quote

• Cats are oppressed, dogs terrify them, landladies starve them, boys stone them, everybody speaks of them with contempt. If they were human beings we could talk of their oppressors with a studied violence, add our strength to theirs, even organize the oppressed and like good politicians sell our charity for power.

  William Butler Yeats

  Dog, Cat, Boys

  William Butler Yeats (2015). “A Vision: The Revised 1937 Edition: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• For how can you compete Being honour bred, with one Who, were it proved he lies, Were neither shamed in his own Nor in his neighbour's eyes?

  William Butler Yeats

  Lying, Eye, Atheism

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.87, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

• The women take so little stock
  In what I do or say
  They'd sooner leave their cosseting
  To hear a jackass bray.

  William Butler Yeats

  Women, Littles, Jackasses

  William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.14, Hayes Barton Press

  10 Copy quote

• The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me.

  William Butler Yeats

  Memories, Confused, Men

  William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.222, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say. Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into the eye of day; The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away.

  William Butler Yeats

  Life, Eye, Gay

  'From Oedipus at Colonus'.

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• We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women with. Letter to Olivia Shakespeare, 1936

  William Butler Yeats

  Friendship, Death, Loneliness

  4 Copy quote

• Fair and foul are near of kin And fair needs foul," I cried. "My friends are gone, but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied."

  William Butler Yeats

  Friendship, Truth, Bed

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.221, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

• Everything that man esteems Endures a moment or a day. Love's pleasure drives his love away, The painter's brush consumes his dreams.

  William Butler Yeats

  Dream, Men, His Love

  William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

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• Dream, dream, for this is also sooth.

  William Butler Yeats

  Dream

  William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.176, Hayes Barton Press

  4 Copy quote

• Many ingenious lovely things are gone / That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude.

  William Butler Yeats

  Miracle, Lovely, Gone

  William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Tis the eternal law,
  That first in beauty should be first in might.

  William Butler Yeats

  Beauty, Law, Might

  7 Copy quote

• Poetry and music I have banished,
  But the stupidity
  Of root, shoot, blossom or clay
  Makes no demand.
  I bend my body to the spade
  Or grope with a dirty hand.

  William Butler Yeats

  Music, Dirty, Roots

  William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.325, Simon and Schuster

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• I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs,
  Those undreamt accidents that have made me
  Seeing that Fame has perished this long while,
  Being but a part of ancient ceremony
  Notorious, till all my priceless things
  Are but a post the passing dogs defile.

  William Butler Yeats

  Forgiveness, Dog, Long

  William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.96, Library of Alexandria

  4 Copy quote

• Somewhere beyond the curtain Of distorting days Lives that lonely thing That shone before these eyes Targeted, trod like Spring.

  William Butler Yeats

  Life, Lonely, Spring

  William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.257, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Civilisation is hooped together, brought
  Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
  By manifold illusion.

  William Butler Yeats

  Civilization, Together, Uprooting

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose”, p.215, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• I am of a healthy long lived race, and our minds improve with age.

  William Butler Yeats

  Birthday, Race, Long

  4 Copy quote

• That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees - Those dying generations-at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unaging intellect.

  William Butler Yeats

  Death, Summer, Country

  "Sailing to Byzantium" l. 1 (1928)

  17 Copy quote

• It's certain there are trout somewhere - And maybe I shall take a trout - but I do not seem to care.

  William Butler Yeats

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.91, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

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