William Butler Yeats Quotes

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William Butler Yeats

Profession : Poet

Birth : June 13, 1865

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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.

William Butler Yeats

To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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.

William Butler Yeats

How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.

William Butler Yeats

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.

William Butler Yeats

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.

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

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

William Butler Yeats

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

William Butler Yeats