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William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 4

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In dreams begins responsibility.

In dreams begins responsibility.

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Life, Dream
Responsibilities epigraph (1914). Said to be from an "Old Play."

Joy is of the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.

William Butler Yeats
Joy, Overcoming, Triumph
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiogra”, p.348, Simon and Schuster

The soul of man is of the imperishable substance of the stars!

William Butler Yeats
Stars, Men, Soul
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.228, Simon and Schuster

Mysticism has been in the past and probably ever will be one of the great powers of the world and it is bad scholarship to pretend the contrary.

William Butler Yeats
Inspirational, Past, Disrespect

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
Adversity, Temptation, Soul

And pluck till time and times are done the silver apples of the moon the golden apples of the sun.

William Butler Yeats
Valentines Day, Time, Moon
"The Song of Wandering Aengus" l. 19 (1899)

In dreams begin responsibilitiy.

William Butler Yeats
Dream, Responsibility, Advice
"Responsibilities". Book by William Butler Yeats. Epigraph, 1914.

I always think a great speaker convinces us not by force of reasoning, but because he is visibly enjoying the beliefs he wants us to accept.

William Butler Yeats
Thinking, Convince Us, Want

I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.

William Butler Yeats
Children, Men, Wife
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiogra”, p.358, Simon and Schuster

It seems to me that true love is a discipline.

William Butler Yeats
Love Is, Discipline, True Love Is
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiogra”, p.343, Simon and Schuster

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
Love, Romantic, Wine
William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.70, Library of Alexandria

All men live in suffering I know as few can know, Whether they take the upper road Or stay content on the low.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Suffering, Lows
William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.790, Simon and Schuster

It is so many years before one can believe enough in what one feels even to know what the feeling is

William Butler Yeats
Happiness, Believe, Years
William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiogra”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

All dreams of the soul End in a beautiful man's or woman's body.

William Butler Yeats
Beauty, Beautiful, Dream
William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.76

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart's core.

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

God guard me from those thoughts men think In the mind alone.

William Butler Yeats
Men, Thinking, Mind
William Butler Yeats (2011). “The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose”, p.213, Simon and Schuster

Because I helped to wind the clock, I come to hear it strike.

William Butler Yeats
Wind, Collaboration, Clock
William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.315, Simon and Schuster

Everything exists, everything is true and the earth is just a bit of dust beneath our feet.

William Butler Yeats
Dust, Feet, Earth

Cast a cold eye on life, on death Horseman pass by

William Butler Yeats
Life, Tombstone, Eye
"Under Ben Bulben" l. 89 (1939). The final three lines are in fact inscribed on Yeats's gravestone.

I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.

William Butler Yeats
Hate, People, Earth
William Butler Yeats (1954). “The Letters of W.B. Yeats”

Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action, for we would not change that which we love.

William Butler Yeats
Love, Unique, Intellectual
William Butler Yeats (2013). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume XIII: A Vision: The Original 1925 Version”, p.223, Simon and Schuster

The only enemy of innocence and beauty is time.

William Butler Yeats
Enemy, Innocence

When two close kindred meet What better than call a dance?.

William Butler Yeats
Dance, Two, Kindred
William Butler Yeats, Glenn Harrington (2002). “William Butler Yeats”, p.38, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.

only an aching heart Conceives a changeless work of art.

William Butler Yeats
Art, Longing, Creation
William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.172, Wordsworth Editions

We must not make a false faith by hiding from our thoughts the causes of doubt, for faith is the highest achievement of the human intellect, the only gift man can make to God, and therefore it must be offered in sincerity.

William Butler Yeats
Faith, Men, Doubt
William Butler Yeats (1998). “Mythologies”, p.332, Simon and Schuster

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