Yet they that know all things but know That all this life can give us is A child's laughter, a woman's kiss. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath, a waste of breath the years behind,… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say. Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
In life courtesy and self-possession, and in the arts style, are the sensible impressions of the free mind, for both arise out… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span; Cease to remember the delights of youth, travel-wearied aged man; Delight becomes… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
. . . you may think I waste my breath Pretending that there can be passion That has more life in it than death — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
To sit beside the board and drink good wine And watch the turf smoke coiling from the fire And feel content and… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
What can books of men that wive In a dragon-guarded land, Paintings of the dolphin-drawn Sea-nymphs in their pearly wagons Do, but… — 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
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
Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff… — 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
“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
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
My temptation is quiet. Here at life's end Neither loose imagination Nor the mill of the mind Consuming its rag and bone,… — 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
The mystical life is at the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write. — 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 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
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
It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our… — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
“The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work.” — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
I see a schoolboy when I think of him, With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair. — William Butler Yeats Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
