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William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 12

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Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?

Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?

William Butler Yeats
Beauty, Dream
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.28, Wordsworth Editions

For to articulate sweet sounds together Is to work harder than all these, and yet Be thought an idler by the noisy set Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen The martyrs call the world.

William Butler Yeats
Sweet, Work, Together
William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.

William Butler Yeats
Truth, War, Thinking
William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings.

William Butler Yeats
Peace, Morning, Wings
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" l. 1 (1893)

I am still of opinion that only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood - sex and the dead.

William Butler Yeats
Death, Sex, Two
Letter to Olivia Shakespear, Oct. 1927

I whispered, 'I am too young,' and then, 'I am old enough'; wherefore I threw a penny to find out if I might love.

William Butler Yeats
Might, Pennies, Enough
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.79, Wordsworth Editions

A lonely impulse of delight

William Butler Yeats
Lonely, Contentment, Delight
"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" l. 9 (1919)

The women take so little stock In what I do or say They'd sooner leave their cosseting To hear a jackass bray.

William Butler Yeats
Women, Littles, Jackasses
William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.14, Hayes Barton Press

Fair and foul are near of kin And fair needs foul," I cried. "My friends are gone, but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied."

William Butler Yeats
Friendship, Truth, Bed
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.221, Wordsworth Editions

Dream, dream, for this is also sooth.

William Butler Yeats
Dream
William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.176, Hayes Barton Press

A poet is a good citizen turned inside out.

William Butler Yeats
Citizens, Poet, Good Citizen
"Memoirs".

The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me.

William Butler Yeats
Memories, Confused, Men
William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.222, Penguin

No art can conquer the people alone-the people are conquered by an ideal of life upheld by authority.

William Butler Yeats
Art, People, Conquer
William Butler Yeats (2010). “Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.362, Simon and Schuster

Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say. Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into the eye of day; The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away.

William Butler Yeats
Life, Eye, Gay
'From Oedipus at Colonus'.

Everything that man esteems Endures a moment or a day. Love's pleasure drives his love away, The painter's brush consumes his dreams.

William Butler Yeats
Dream, Men, His Love
William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

Evil comes to us men of imagination wearing as its mask all the virtues.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Evil, Imagination
"The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiographies".

We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women with. Letter to Olivia Shakespeare, 1936

William Butler Yeats
Friendship, Death, Loneliness

What can I but enumerate old themes?

William Butler Yeats
Theme
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.180

Who mocks at music mocks at love.

William Butler Yeats
Love
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

All art is in the last analysis an endeavor to condense as out of the flying vapor of the world an image of human perfection, and for its own and not for the art's sake.

William Butler Yeats
Art, Perfection, Flying
William Butler Yeats (1957). “The variorum edition of the poems of W. B. Yeats”

Cats are oppressed, dogs terrify them, landladies starve them, boys stone them, everybody speaks of them with contempt. If they were human beings we could talk of their oppressors with a studied violence, add our strength to theirs, even organize the oppressed and like good politicians sell our charity for power.

William Butler Yeats
Dog, Cat, Boys
William Butler Yeats (2015). “A Vision: The Revised 1937 Edition: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

But O, sick children of the world, Of all the many changing things In dreary dancing past us whirled, To the cracked tune that Chronos sings, Words alone are certain good.

William Butler Yeats
Time, Children, Past
William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.142, Penguin

What's memory but the ash That chokes our fires that have begun to sink?

William Butler Yeats
Memories, Fire, Ashes
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.39, Simon and Schuster

Poetry and music I have banished, But the stupidity Of root, shoot, blossom or clay Makes no demand. I bend my body to the spade Or grope with a dirty hand.

William Butler Yeats
Music, Dirty, Roots
William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.325, Simon and Schuster

And when you sigh from kiss to kiss I hear white Beauty sighing, too, For hours when all must fade like dew.

William Butler Yeats
Beauty, Kissing, White
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.50, Wordsworth Editions

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