I think all happiness depends on the energy to assume the mask of some other life, on a re-birth as something not… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
No art can conquer the people alone-the people are conquered by an ideal of life upheld by authority. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
A living man is blind and drinks his drop. What matter if the ditches are impure? What matter if I live it… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work And if it take the second… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
I have mummy truths to tell Whereat the living mock, Though not for sober ear, For maybe all that hear Should laugh… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Somewhere beyond the curtain Of distorting days Lives that lonely thing That shone before these eyes Targeted, trod like Spring. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman,… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Death and life were not Till man made up the whole, Made lock, stock and barrel Out of his bitter soul — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
“When I think of life as struggle with the Daimon who would ever set us to the hardest work among those not… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Some burn damp faggots, others may consume The entire combustible world in one small room As though dried straw, and if we… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
“They must go out of the theatre with the strength they live by strengthened from looking upon some passion that could, whatever… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Any fool can fight a winning battle, but it needs character to fight a losing one, and that should inspire us; which… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
A spot whereon the founders lived and died Seemed once more dear than life; ancestral trees, Or gardens rich in memory glorified… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
One often hears of a horse that shivers with terror, or of a dog that howls at something a mans eyes cannot… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
“O cowardly amd tyrannous race of monks, persecutors of the bard, and the gleemen, haters of life and joy! O race that… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
And if joy were not on the earth, There were an end of change and birth, And Earth and Heaven and Hell… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
When I think of all the books I have read, and of the wise words I have heard spoken, and of the… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
All the great masters have understood that there cannot be great art without the little limited life of the fable, which is… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns, Amid the rustle of his planted hills, Life overflows without ambitious pains; And rains down… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Let the minor genius go his light way and enjoy his life - the great nature cannot so live, he is never… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
On the grey rock of Cashel I suddenly saw A Sphinx with woman breast and lion paw, A Buddha, hand at rest,… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Should some limb of the devil Destroy the view by cutting down an ash That shades the road, or setting up a… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
I would have touched it like a child But knew my finger could but have touched Cold stone and water. I grew wild, Even… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
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… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast, Drowning love's lonely hour… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
That toil of growing up; The ignominy of boyhood; the distress Of boyhood changing into man; The unfinished man and his pain. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
I see a schoolboy when I think of him, With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Great literature has always been written in a like spirit, and is, indeed, the Forgiveness of Sin, and when we find it becoming the… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Where the wave of moonlight glosses The dim gray sands with light, Far off by furthest Rosses We foot it all the night, Weaving… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
His element is so fine Being sharpened by his death, To drink from the wine-breath While our gross palates drink from the whole wine. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action,… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? For these red lips, with all their mournful pride, Mournful that no new wonder may betide,… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share
