William Butler Yeats Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

But I,
being poor,
have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

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

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

Being Irish,
he had an abiding sense of tragedy,
which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.

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

One man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

Choose your companions from the best;
Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.

It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions.
There is always something in our enemy that we like,
and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.

Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
and say my glory was I had such friends.

That toil of growing up;
The ignominy of boyhood;
the distress Of boyhood changing into man;
The unfinished man and his pain.

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.

All that I have said and done, Now that I am old and ill, Turns into a question till I lie awake night after night And never get the answers right.

And a softness came from the starlight and filled me full to the bone.

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

I call on those that call me son,
Grandson,
or great-grandson,
On uncles,
aunts,
great-uncles or great-aunts,
To judge what I have done.
Have I,
that put it into words,
Spoilt what old loins have sent?

We taste and feel and see the truth.
We do not reason ourselves into it.

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

All things uncomely and broken,
all things worn out and old The cry of a child by the roadway,
the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the plowman,
splashing the wintry mold,
Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.

Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold.

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

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

Take,
if you must,
this little bag of dreams,
Unloose the cord,
and they will wrap you round.

When You Are Old" WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire,
take down this book,
And slowly read,
and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once,
and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur,
a little sadly,
how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.

Wine enters through the mouth,
Love,
the eyes.
I raise the glass to my mouth,
I look at you,
I sigh.

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.

I have believed the best of every man.
And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best,
or even a good man swings his lantern higher.

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart;
the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,
and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction,
while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

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

I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above;
those that I fight I do not hate,
those that I guard I do not love.

The light of lights looks always on the motive,
not the deed,
the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.

The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.

Sometimes my feet are tired and my hands are quiet,
but there is no quiet in my heart.

The tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul.

And wisdom is a butterfly And not a gloomy bird of prey.

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass The demons,
with their subtle guile, Lift up before us when they pass, Or only gaze a little while.

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.

Everything in nature is resurrection.

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.

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
and nodding by the fire,
take down this book and slowly read,
and dream of the soft look your eyes had once,
and of their shadows deep.