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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

Poet

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, and essayist, considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His poetry deeply reflected the nationalist sentiments of Ireland and also showcased rich imagination and profound philosophical thinking. Yeats' poetic style was versatile, evolving from early romanticism to late symbolism, and his works have had a profound impact on literature both in Ireland and around the world.

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All Men Heart World Life Ifs Eye Dream Knows May Mind Soul Thinking Made Love Hands Long Poetry Wind Art Body

Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“A man in his own secret meditation / Is lost amid the labyrinth that he has made / In art or politics.”

Men Art Made Lost Secret Meditation Labyrinth

Book:Selected Poems And Four Plays

Source: Selected Poems And Four Plays

“All art is in the last analysis an endeavor to condense as out of the flying vapor of the world an image of human perfection, and for its own and not for the art's sake.”

World Humans Art Lasts Art Is Perfection Sake Flying Analysis Endeavor Vapor

Book:The variorum edition of the poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The variorum edition of the poems of W. B. Yeats

“Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned.”

Art Age Certain Individual Religious Genius Art Is Tradition Supreme Statements Traditional Abandoned Heroic Religious Truth

Book:Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats

Source: Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats

“All art that is not mere storytelling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic, and has the purpose of those symbolic talismans which medieval magicians made with complex colours and forms, and bade their patients ponder over daily, and guard with holy secrecy; for it entangles, in complex colours and forms, a part of the Divine Essence.”

Art Made Form Purpose Divine Holy Essence Mere Complexes Patient Storytelling Colour Magician Secrecy Medieval Symbolic Pondering Portraiture Talismans

Author:William Butler Yeats

“Even the wisest man grows tense With some sort of violence Before he can accomplish fate, Know his work or choose his mate. Poet and sculptor, do the work, Nor let the modish painter shirk”

Knows Men Art Wisdom Artist Grows Fate Violence Poet Accomplish Painter Mates Tense Wisest Sculptors Wisest Man Shirk

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“There is no release In a bodkin or disease, Nor can there be a work so great As that which cleans man's dirty slate.”

Men Life Art Artist Disease Release Dirty Slate

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“What can books of men that wive In a dragon-guarded land, Paintings of the dolphin-drawn Sea-nymphs in their pearly wagons Do, but awake a hope to live...?”

Men Life Art Book Artist Hope Sea Land Painting Live Life Awake Dragons Guarded Dolphins Wagons Nymphs Hope To Live

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“only an aching heart Conceives a changeless work of art.”

Heart Art Artist Creation Longing Works Of Art Heart Ache

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make”

Art Form Artist Nature Natural Natural Things Drowsy Lords And Ladies Byzantium

Author:William Butler Yeats

“When we are high and airy hundreds say That if we hold that flight they'll leave the place, While those same hundreds mock another day Because we have made our art of common things.”

Ifs Art Made Common Opinion Audience Flight Public Opinion Mock Another Day Airy Common Things

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“How can the arts overcome the slow dying of men's hearts that we call progress ?”

Men Heart Art Progress Dying Overcoming

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“I think you can leave the arts, superior or inferior, to the conscience of mankind.”

Thinking Art Mankind Conscience Superiors Censorship Inferiors

Author:William Butler Yeats

“The mystical life is at the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”

Thinking Life Inspirational Writing Art Life Is Centre Mystical

Book:W. B. Yeats: A Vision and Related Writings

Source: W. B. Yeats: A Vision and Related Writings

“Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is Art, and she has built her dwelling far from the desperate field where men hang out their garments upon forked boughs to be banners of battle. O beloved daughter of Hope and Memory, be with me for a while.”

Men Inspirational Art Names Memories Fields Battle Daughter Built Beloved Desperate Hanging Out Dwelling Garments Banner

Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

Source: When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

“All the great masters have understood that there cannot be great art without the little limited life of the fable, which is always better the simpler it is, and the rich, far-wandering, many-imaged life of the half-seen world beyond it”

World Littles Art Half Rich Masters Understood Wander Great Art Fables

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

“Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead . . . That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.”

Long Art Wisdom Young Song Silence Lovers Speech Supreme Ignorant Theme Long Silence

Book:The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose

Source: The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose

“In life courtesy and self-possession, and in the arts style, are the sensible impressions of the free mind, for both arise out of a deliberate shaping of all things and from never being swept away, whatever the emotion into confusion or dullness.”

Life Mind Art Self Emotion Style All Things Possession Impression Arise Confusion Sensible Deliberate Courtesy Dullness Swept Away

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

“No art can conquer the people alone-the people are conquered by an ideal of life upheld by authority.”

People Art Authority Ideals Conquer

Book:Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats

Source: Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats

“Art bids us touch and taste and hear and see the world, and shrinks from what Blake calls mathematic form, from every abstract form, from all that is of the brain only.”

World Art Form Brain Taste Abstract Shrinks Blake

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays

About the Author

Born: June 13, 1865
Died: January 28, 1939
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 615

Related Topics

Men Heart World Life Ifs Eye Dream Knows May Mind Soul Thinking Made Love Hands Long Poetry Wind Art Body

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Collected Poems of W. B. YeatsRelated source material

The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd EditionRelated source material

The Major WorksRelated source material

Poems of William Butler YeatsRelated source material

Later PoemsRelated source material

Selected Poems And Four PlaysRelated source material

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

COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATSRelated source material

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early EssaysRelated source material

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The PlaysRelated source material

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