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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

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Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.”

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Author:William Butler Yeats
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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.”

IfsMenTryingWellsBeliefMemoriesHeardPleaseWarmConfusedThreadGarmentsWovenThreads Of Life
Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales
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“Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, Or hurled the little streets upon the great, Had they but courage equal to desire? What could have made her peaceful with a mind That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind That is not natural in an age like this Being high and solitary and most stern? Why, what could she have done, being what she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn?”

MenWayShouldMindKindLittlesMadeDoneAgeDesireNaturalSimpleFireStreetsTaughtEqualLateBlameFilledMiseryViolentIgnorantPeacefulBowsSolitaryShould I
Author:William Butler Yeats
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“I believe when I am in the mood that all nature is full of people whom we cannot see, and that some of these are ugly or grotesque, and some wicked or foolish, but very many beautiful beyond any one we have ever seen, and that these are not far away... and the simple of all times and the wise men of ancient times have seen them and even spoken to them.”

PeopleMenBelieveBeautifulI BelieveSimpleWiseAncientUglyFoolishMoodAll TimeWickedFar AwayGrotesqueAncient Times
Author:William Butler Yeats
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“When You Are Old" WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”

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Author:William Butler Yeats
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“How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics? Yet here's a travelled man that knows What he talks about, And there's a politician That has read and thought, And maybe what they say is true Of war and war's alarms, But O that I were young again And held her in my arms!”

KnowsMenWarYoungGirlAttentionArmsPoliticianStandingAlarmsThat GirlStanding There
Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition
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“For the good are always the merry, / Save by an evil chance,/ And the merry love the fiddle,/ And the merry love to dance: / And when the folk there spy me,/ They will all come up to me, / With,”Here is the fiddler of Dooney!” / And dance like a wave of the sea.”

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Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol X: Later Articles and Reviews: Uncollected Articles, Reviews, and Radio Broadcasts Written After 1900
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