“To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.”
Women
“If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.”
WisdomAll Quotes by William Butler Yeats
“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“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.”
Happiness“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“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“Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.”
Courage“In dreams begins responsibility.”
Dreams“I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'”
Men“People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.”
Best“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
Education“But I, being poor, have only my dreams I have spread my dreams under your feet Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
Dreams“The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.”
Alone“We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.”
Poetry“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“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“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.”
Best“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“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“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