Byzantium Quotes

There remain of Europe, first, Macedonia and the part of Thrace that are contiguous to it and extend as far as Byzantium; secondly, Greece; and thirdly, the Islands that are close by. Macedonia, of course, is a part of Greece, yet now, since I am following the nature and shape of the place geographically, I have decided to classify it apart from the rest of Greece and to join it with that part of Thrace.

Writing for children is as easy as describing the history of the Byzantium in three words.

Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enameling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past,
or passing,
or to come.

Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

One day in Dipstick, Nebraska, or Landfill, Oklahoma, is worth more to me than an eternity in Dante's plastic Paradiso, or Yeats's gold-plated Byzantium.

I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver,
and artificial birds that sang.