W.B. Yeats Quotes

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Famous W.B. Yeats Quotes

“There are some doubters even in the western villages. One woman told me last Christmas that she did not believe either in hell or in ghosts. Hell she thought was merely an invention got up by the priest to keep people good; and ghosts would not be permitted, she held, to go 'trapsin about the earth' at their own free will; 'but there are faeries,' she added, 'and little leprechauns, and water-horses, and fallen angels.' I have met also a man with a mohawk Indian tattooed upon his arm, who held exactly similar beliefs and unbeliefs. No matter what one doubts one never doubts the faeries, for, as the man with the mohawk Indian on his arm said to me, 'they stand to reason.' Even the official mind does not escape this faith. ("Reason and Unreason")”

Religion Belief Heaven Hell Fairy Rationality Unbelief Fey Faery

Book:The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

Source: The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

“(I) only write it now because I have grown to believe that there is no dangerous idea, which does not become less dangerous when written out in sincere and careful English. ("The Adoration of The Magi")”

Writing Ideas Danger

Author:W.B. Yeats

“It was at the moment of the fall of day when every man may pass as handsome and every woman as comely.”

Men Time Women Beauty

Book:Stories of Red Hanrahan

Source: Stories of Red Hanrahan

“The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time; Arise and bid me strike a match And strike another till time catch; (In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz)”

Time Beauty

Book:The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

“A couple of hours after Sunset Michael Robartes returned and told me that I would have to learn the steps of an exceedingly antique dance, because before my initiation could be perfected I had to join three times in a magical dance, for rhythm was the wheel of Eternity, on which alone the transient and accidental could be broken, and the spirit set free.”

Dance Rhythm

Book:Rosa Alchemica

Source: Rosa Alchemica

“Labour is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.”

Soul Work Dance

Book:The Tower

Source: The Tower

“O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

Dance Wb Yeats

Book:The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. 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." (Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven)”

Dreams

Book:The Wind Among the Reeds

Source: The Wind Among the Reeds

“One loses, as one grows older, something of the lightness of one's dreams; one begins to take life up in both hands, and to care more for the fruit than the flower, and that is no great loss perhaps.”

Dreams Ageing

Book:The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

Source: The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

“You will forget me soon. Oh dear one, hate me rather than forget.”

Hate Forget

Book:The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

“Jonathan Swift made a soul for the gentlemen of this city by hating his neighbor as himself.”

Hate Golden Rule Neighbors Jonathan Swift The Tables Of The Law

Book:Selected Poems And Four Plays

Source: Selected Poems And Four Plays

About the Author

Known for: Author
Quotes: 61

Books & Sources

The Collected Poems of W.B. YeatsRelated source material

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and FolkloreRelated source material

Stories of Red HanrahanRelated source material

The Wild Swans at CooleRelated source material

Rosa AlchemicaRelated source material

Selected Poems And Four PlaysRelated source material

When You Are Old: Early Poems and Fairy TalesRelated source material

AutobiographiesRelated source material

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish PeasantryRelated source material

ResponsibilitiesRelated source material