Quotes By William Butler Yeats

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.

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

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

Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry.

The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.

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

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.

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.

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.

Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.

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

Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

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.

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera.

Nor dread nor hope attend a dying animal; a man awaits his end dreading and hoping all.

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.

An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.

If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.

Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?

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

And say my glory was I had such friends.

I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath, a waste of breath the years behind, in balance with this life, this death.

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

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.

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

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.

I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'

In dreams begins responsibility.

The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.