William Butler Yeats Quotes

The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life or of the work.

A statesman is an easy man He tells his lies by rote A journalist makes up his lies And takes you by the throat So stay at home and drink your beer And let the neighbours vote.

Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry.

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

She bid me take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree But I being young and foolish with her would not agree.

Style personality - deliberately adopted and therefore a mask - is the only escape from the hot-faced bargainers and money-changers.

No man has ever lived that had enough of children's gratitude or woman's love.

Only that which does not teach which does not cry out which does not condescend which does not explain is irresistible.

Florence Farr once said to me "If we could say to ourselves with sincerity 'this passing moment is as good as any I shall ever know ' we could die upon the instant and be united with God."

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion.

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

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

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

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

Joy is the will which labors which overcomes obstacles which knows triumph.

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

Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart.

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.

Be secret and exult Because of all things known That is most difficult.