"There are a few of the open-air spirits; the more domestic of their tribe gather within-doors, plentiful as swallows under southern eaves."
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Quote collection
William Butler Yeats quotes (page 23 of 30)
591 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I gave what other women gave That stepped out of their clothes But when this soul, its body off Naked to naked goes, He it has found shall find therein What none other knows."
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"He only can create the greatest imaginable beauty who has endured all imaginable pangs, for only when we have seen and foreseen what we dread shall we be rewarded by that dazzling unforeseen wing-footed wanderer."
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"A thought Of that late death took all my heart for speech."
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"I have no question: It is enough, I know what fixed the station Of star and cloud. And knowing all, I cry. . . ."
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"Whence had they come The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome? What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?"
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"A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him up for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown."
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"The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told; I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart."
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"We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women with. Letter to Olivia Shakespeare, 1936"
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"The labor of the alchemists, who were called artist in their day, is a befitting comparison for a deliberate change of style."
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"I have heard that hysterical women say They are sick of the palette and fiddle-bow, Of poets that are always gay"
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"The night can sweat with terror as before We pieced our thoughts into philosophy, And planned to bring the world under a rule, Who are but weasels fighting in a hole."
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"No man, even though he be Shakespeare, can write perfectly when his web is woven of threads that have been spun in many lands."
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"How can they know Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone, And there alone, that have no solitude? So the crowd come they care not what may come. They have loud music, hope every day renewed And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb."
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"The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me."
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"Come, fix upon me that accusing eye. I thirst for accusation. All that was sung. All that was said in Ireland is a lie Breed out of the contagion of the throng, Saving the rhyme rats hear before they die."
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"Nor seek, for this is also sooth, To hunger fiercely after truth, Lest all thy toiling only breeds New dreams, new dreams; there is no truth Saving in thine own heart."
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"For what but eye and ear silence the mind With the minute particulars of mankind?"
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"Where the world ends The mind is made unchanging, for it finds Miracle, ecstasy, the impossible hope, The flagstone under all, the fire of fires, The roots of the world."
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"Come let us mock at the good That fancied goodness might be gay, And sick of solitude Might proclaim a holiday: Wind shrieked and where are they?"
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