“Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.”
Dreams
“The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.”
BusinessAll Quotes by William Butler Yeats
“The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.”
Men“The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.”
Time“If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.”
Wisdom“The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.”
Business“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”
Saintpatricksday“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.”
Romantic“You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements.”
God“The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.”
Alone“You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon Ireland's history in their lineaments trace think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.”
Alone“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.”
God“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.”
Death“Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.”
Design“One should not lose one's temper unless one is certain of getting more and more angry to the end.”
Anger“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.”
Truth“Out of Ireland have we come, great hatred, little room, maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic heart.”
Great“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
Education“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.”
Men“To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.”
Women“I am of a healthy long lived race, and our minds improve with age.”
Age