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William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 11

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I have mummy truths to tell Whereat the living mock, Though not for sober ear, For maybe all that hear Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.

I have mummy truths to tell Whereat the living mock, Though not for sober ear, For maybe all that hear Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.

William Butler Yeats
Truth, Afterlife, Laughing
William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.37, Hayes Barton Press

Eyes spiritualised by death can judge, I cannot, but I am not content.

William Butler Yeats
Eye, Judging
William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.54, Hayes Barton Press

A living man is blind and drinks his drop. What matter if the ditches are impure? What matter if I live it all once more?

William Butler Yeats
Life, Men, What Matters
William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.8, Hayes Barton Press

And God stands winding His lonely horn, And time and the world are ever in flight.

William Butler Yeats
Lonely, Time, Loneliness
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol X: Later Article: Uncollected Articles, Reviews, and Radio Broadcasts Written After 1900”, p.211, Simon and Schuster

Nor bird nor beast Could make me wish for anything this day, Being old, but that the old alone might die, And that would be against God's Providence.

William Butler Yeats
Bird, Wish, Would Be
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

Never give all the heart, for love Will hardly seem worth thinking of To passionate women if it seem Certain, and they never dream That it fades out from kiss to kiss; For everything that's lovely is But a brief, dreamy, kind delight. O Never give the heart outright, For they, for all smooth lips can say, Have given their hearts up to the play. And who could play it well enough If deaf and dumb and blind with love? He that made this knows all the cost, For he gave all his heart and lost.

William Butler Yeats
Dream, Heart, Kissing
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.63, Wordsworth Editions

And that enquiring man John Synge comes next, That dying chose the living world for text And never could have rested in the tomb But that, long travelling, he had come Towards nightfall upon certain set apart In a most desolate stony place.

William Butler Yeats
Life, Men, Long
William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.98, Library of Alexandria

The hare grows old as she plays in the sun And gazes around her with eyes of brightness; Before the swift things that she dreamed of were done She limps along in an aged whiteness.

William Butler Yeats
Eye, Play, Age
William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.40, Penguin

I think all happiness depends on the energy to assume the mask of some other life, on a re-birth as something not one's self.

William Butler Yeats
Thinking, Self, Energy
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.413

I thought it out this very day, Noon upon the clock, A man may put pretence away Who leans upon a stick, May sing, and sing until he drop, Whether to maid or hag.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Noon, Redemption
William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.271, Simon and Schuster

Both nuns and mothers worship images, But those the candles light are not as those That animate a mother's reveries, But keep a marble or a bronze repose.

William Butler Yeats
Mother, Light, Worship
"Among School Children" l. 49 (1928)

What the world's million lips are searching for, must be substantial somewhere.

William Butler Yeats
World, Lips, Millions

While Michael Angelo's Sistine roof, His "Morning" and his "Night" disclose How sinew that has been pulled tight, Or it may be loosened in repose, Can rule by supernatural right Yet be but sinew.

William Butler Yeats
Morning, Night, Body
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.82

My wretched dragon is perplexed.

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Life, Dragons
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.148, Wordsworth Editions

Why should I seek for love or study it? It is of God and passes human wit; I study hatred with great diligence, For that's a passion in my own control, A sort of besom that can clear the soul Of everything that is not mind or sense.

William Butler Yeats
Hate, Passion, Hatred
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.245, Wordsworth Editions

When an immortal passion breathes in mortal clay; Our hearts endure the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side, The vinegar-heavy sponge, the flowers by Kedron stream.

William Butler Yeats
Jesus, Flower, Passion
William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.68, Simon and Schuster

Though pedantry denies, It's plain the Bible means That Solomon grew wise While talking with his queens.

William Butler Yeats
Wise, Queens, Women
William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.110, Library of Alexandria

Time can but make it easier to be wise / Though now it seems impossible, and so / All that you need is patience.

William Butler Yeats
Wise, Patience, Needs
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol X: Later Article: Uncollected Articles, Reviews, and Radio Broadcasts Written After 1900”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

Before me floats an image, man or shade, / Shade more than man, more image than a shade.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Shade, Floats
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.210, Wordsworth Editions

When we have blamed the wind we can blame love.

William Butler Yeats
Wind, Blame
William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.30, Library of Alexandria

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

William Butler Yeats
Heart, Deep Heart, Core
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" l. 10 (1893)

The desire that is satisfied is not a great desire, nor has the shoulder used all its might that an unbreakable gate has never strained.

William Butler Yeats
Desire, Might, Unbreakable
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.415

Our words must seem to be inevitable.

William Butler Yeats
Writing, Our Words, Inevitable
William Butler Yeats (1954). “Letters”

We only believe in those thoughts which have been conceived not in the brain but in the whole body.

William Butler Yeats
Believe, Brain, Body
William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.173, Simon and Schuster

Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.

William Butler Yeats
Wisdom, Ignorant, Youth
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.140

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