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William Butler Yeats Quotes

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What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.

What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Doe

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.

William Butler Yeats
Soul, Opinion, Empty

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

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation
"Gov. Brown Uses State of the State Speech to Push Education Reforms" by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, www.scpr.org. January 24, 2013.

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

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Life, Friendship

By logic and reason we die hourly; by imagination we live.

William Butler Yeats
Imagination, Logic, Progressive

There is another world, but it is in this one.

William Butler Yeats
Life, World, Chaos

If what I say resonates with you, it's merely because we're branches of the same tree.

William Butler Yeats
Emotional, Tree, Branches

The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.

William Butler Yeats
Joy, Tragedy, Periods

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

William Butler Yeats
Passionate, Doubt And Certainty, Anarchy
"The Second Coming" l. 1 (1921)

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, Angel, Flames
William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.102, Penguin

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

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

A statesman is an easy man, he tells his lies by rote. A journalist invents his lies, and rams them down your throat. So stay at home and drink your beer and let the neighbors vote.

William Butler Yeats
Lying, Drinking, Home

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

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

The visible world is no longer a reality and the unseen world no longer a dream.

William Butler Yeats
Dream, Reality, Unseen
Rebecca Pauline Christine Brugsma, William Butler Yeats (1933). “The Beginnings of the Irish Revival ...”

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

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Wise, Teamwork

From our birthday, until we die, Is but the winking of an eye.

William Butler Yeats
Happy Birthday, Eye, My Birthday
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.26

It takes more courage to dig deep in the dark corners of your own soul and the back alleys of your society than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.

William Butler Yeats
Fighting, Dark, Back Alleys

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

William Butler Yeats
Life, Disappointment, Long

Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.

William Butler Yeats
Journey, Numbers, Progress

The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write. . . . I have always considered myself a voice of what I believe to be a greater renaissance - the revolt of the soul against the intellect.

William Butler Yeats
Life, Believe, Writing
William Butler Yeats (1955). “Letters”

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
Love, Life, Dream
"HeWishes for the Cloths of Heaven" l. 7 (1899)

If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.

William Butler Yeats
Wise, Wisdom, Suffering

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

William Butler Yeats
Religious, Atheism, Way

I have observed dreams and visions very carefully, and am now certain that the imagination has some way of lighting on the truth that the reason has not, and that its commandments, delivered when the body is still and the reason silent, are the most binding we can ever know.

William Butler Yeats
Dream, Imagination, Vision
William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

Any fool can fight a winning battle, but it needs character to fight a losing one, and that should inspire us; which reminds me that I dreamed the other night that I was being hanged, but was the life and soul of the party.

William Butler Yeats
Party, Character, Fighting

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