William Butler Yeats Quotes

Quote

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.
William Butler Yeats

Friendship, Friends, Begins

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

Education, Fire, Lighting

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

Dreams, Poor, Feet

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.
William Butler Yeats

Happiness, Happy, Growth

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

Saint Patrick's Day, Him, Through

Quote

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

Wait, Hot, Strike

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

Dance, Wind, Mountains

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.
William Butler Yeats

Opinions, Empty, Toward

Quote

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
William Butler Yeats

Dreams, Softly, Tread

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
William Butler Yeats

Best, While, Worst

In dreams begins responsibility.
William Butler Yeats

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.
William Butler Yeats

History, Alone, Judge

Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution.
William Butler Yeats

Once, Religious, Open

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

Before, Soul, Energy

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

Human, Understand, Away

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.
William Butler Yeats

Sleep, Deep, Book

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.
William Butler Yeats

Romantic, Love, Truth

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.
William Butler Yeats

Imagination, Best, Mind

Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?
William Butler Yeats

Heart, Long, May

I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'
William Butler Yeats

Men, Beautiful, Old

Out of Ireland have we come, great hatred, little room, maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic heart.
William Butler Yeats

Great, Mother, Heart

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.
William Butler Yeats

Lost, Through, Sometimes

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.
William Butler Yeats

Life, Long, Happens

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.
William Butler Yeats

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.
William Butler Yeats

Friends, Here, Strangers

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Biography

Nationality: Irish

Type: Poet

Born: June 13, 1865

Died: January 28, 1939

Links

Find on Amazon: William Butler Yeats

Cite this Page: Citation

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