A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
William Butler Yeats

A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love.
William Butler Yeats

Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.
William Butler Yeats

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.
William Butler Yeats

An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.
William Butler Yeats

An intellectual hatred is the worst.
William Butler Yeats

And say my glory was I had such friends.
William Butler Yeats

Be secret and exult, Because of all things known That is most difficult.
William Butler Yeats

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.
William Butler Yeats

Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.
William Butler Yeats


But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
William Butler Yeats

But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?
William Butler Yeats

Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry.
William Butler Yeats

Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.
William Butler Yeats

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.
William Butler Yeats

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!
William Butler Yeats

Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.
William Butler Yeats

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
William Butler Yeats

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats

Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
William Butler Yeats