William Butler Yeats Quotes And Sayings

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped the foundation of the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as an Irish Senator for two terms and was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. . From 1900, Yeats’s poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  

Do Not Wait To Strike Till The Iron Is Hot; But Make It Hot By Striking.

There Are No Strangers Here; Only Friends You Haven't Yet Met.

But I, Being Poor, Have Only My Dreams; I Have Spread My Dreams Under Your Feet; Tread Softly Because You Tread On My Dreams.

Take, If You Must, This Little Bag Of Dreams, Unloose The Cord, And They Will Wrap You Round.

Too Long A Sacrifice Can Make A Stone Of The Heart. O When May It Suffice?

The Only Business Of The Head In The World Is To Bow A Ceaseless Obeisance To The Heart.

Tread Softly Because You Tread On My Dreams.

We Are Happy When For Everything Inside Us There Is A Corresponding Something Outside Us.

The Innocent And The Beautiful Have No Enemy But Time.

I Wonder Anybody Does Anything At Oxford But Dream And Remember, The Place Is So Beautiful. One Almost Expects The People To Sing Instead Of Speaking. It Is All Like An Opera.

All Empty Souls Tend Toward Extreme Opinions.

Education Is Not The Filling Of A Pail, But The Lighting Of A Fire.

If Suffering Brings Wisdom, I Would Wish To Be Less Wise.

Joy Is Of The Will Which Labours, Which Overcomes Obstacles, Which Knows Triumph.

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!

Being Irish, He Had An Abiding Sense Of Tragedy, Which Sustained Him Through Temporary Periods Of Joy.

Once You Attempt Legislation Upon Religious Grounds, You Open The Way For Every Kind Of Intolerance And Religious Persecution.

How Can We Know The Dancer From The Dance?

Come Away, O Human Child: To The Waters And The Wild With A Fairy, Hand In Hand, For The World's More Full Of Weeping Than You Can Understand.

Talent Perceives Differences; Genius, Unity.

This Melancholy London - I Sometimes Imagine That The Souls Of The Lost Are Compelled To Walk Through Its Streets Perpetually. One Feels Them Passing Like A Whiff Of Air.

Those That I Fight I Do Not Hate, Those That I Guard I Do Not Love.

Life Is A Long Preparation For Something That Never Happens.

The Best Lack All Conviction, While The Worst Are Full Of Passionate Intensity.

I Balanced All, Brought All To Mind, The Years To Come Seemed Waste Of Breath, A Waste Of Breath The Years Behind, In Balance With This Life, This Death.

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 Light Of Lights Looks Always On The Motive, Not The Deed, The Shadow Of Shadows On The Deed Alone.

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.

We Make Out Of The Quarrel With Others, Rhetoric, But Of The Quarrel With Ourselves, Poetry.

You Know What The Englishman's Idea Of Compromise Is? He Says, Some People Say There Is A God. Some People Say There Is No God. The Truth Probably Lies Somewhere Between These Two Statements.

You That Would Judge Me, Do Not Judge Alone This Book Or That, Come To This Hallowed Place Where My Friends' Portraits Hang And Look Thereon; Ireland's History In Their Lineaments Trace; Think Where Man's Glory Most Begins And Ends And Say My Glory Was I Had Such Friends.

Be Secret And Exult, Because Of All Things Known That Is Most Difficult.

How Far Away The Stars Seem, And How Far Is Our First Kiss, And Ah, How Old My Heart.

People Who Lean On Logic And Philosophy And Rational Exposition End By Starving The Best Part Of The Mind.

But Was There Ever Dog That Praised His Fleas?

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.

Choose Your Companions From The Best; Who Draws A Bucket With The Rest Soon Topples Down The Hill.

A Pity Beyond All Telling Is Hid In The Heart Of Love.

One Should Not Lose One's Temper Unless One Is Certain Of Getting More And More Angry To The End.

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.

In Dreams Begins Responsibility.

I Think You Can Leave The Arts, Superior Or Inferior, To The Conscience Of Mankind.

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.

Think Like A Wise Man But Communicate In The Language Of The People.

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.

Designs In Connection With Postage Stamps And Coinage May Be Described, I Think, As The Silent Ambassadors On National Taste.

Accursed Who Brings To Light Of Day The Writings I Have Cast Away.

Man Can Embody Truth But He Cannot Know It.

I Am Of A Healthy Long Lived Race, And Our Minds Improve With Age.

The Worst Thing About Some Men Is That When They Are Not Drunk They Are Sober.