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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

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Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“I have observed dreams and visions very carefully, and am now certain that the imagination has some way of lighting on the truth that the reason has not, and that its commandments, delivered when the body is still and the reason silent, are the most binding we can ever know.”

KnowsWayStillsReasonDreamBodyCertainImaginationVisionSilentCommandmentsLightingBinding
Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays
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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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“An Irish Airman foresees his Death I Know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love, My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public man, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.”

KnowsMenYearsMindEndsCountryLawHateFightingLossPoorBehindsFateDutyBalanceWasteCrossesLonelyBreathsCloudsCrowdsDelightThis LifeImpulseCheerBalancedCountrymenTumultAirmen
Author:William Butler Yeats
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“Never give all the heart, for love Will hardly seem worth thinking of To passionate women if it seem Certain, and they never dream That it fades out from kiss to kiss; For everything that's lovely is But a brief, dreamy, kind delight. O Never give the heart outright, For they, for all smooth lips can say, Have given their hearts up to the play. And who could play it well enough If deaf and dumb and blind with love? He that made this knows all the cost, For he gave all his heart and lost.”

IfsThinkingKnowsGivingWellsHeartKindMadeEnoughPlayDreamSeemsCertainLostGivenCostKissingBlindLipsPassionateDelightLovelyDumbFadesSmoothDeafDreamyDeaf And DumbPassionate Woman
Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
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“Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. 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?”

KnowsSoulWisdomBodyBornPleasureTreeDespairLaborDancingOilDancerRootedLeafsGlancesMidnightBruisedBlossomingChestnuts
Author:William Butler Yeats
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