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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

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Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability. Propositions, for instance, which set all the truth upon one side can only enter rich minds to dislocate and strain, if they can enter at all, and sooner or later the mind expels them by instinct.”

IfsWorldMindSoulSidesMemoriesOpinionRichHabitBuiltEmptyInstinctExtremesInstanceSooner Or LaterProbabilityPropositionsStrainAffrontEmpty Souls
Book:Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats
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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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“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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“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.”

LifeMindArtSelfEmotionStyleAll ThingsPossessionImpressionAriseConfusionSensibleDeliberateCourtesyDullnessSwept Away
Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays
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“The Mask "Put off that mask of burning gold With emerald eyes." "O no, my dear, you make so bold To find if hearts be wild and wise, And yet not cold." "I would but find what's there to find, Love or deceit." "It was the mask engaged your mind, And after set your heart to beat, Not what's behind." "But lest you are my enemy, I must enquire." "O no, my dear, let all that be, What matter, so there is but fire In you, in me?"”

IfsMindHeartMatterEyeBehindsEnemyFireWiseColdBeatsGoldDearBurningEngagedMaskDeceitWhat MattersFinding LoveEmeralds
Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
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“We cannot doubt that barbaric people receive such influences more visibly and obviously, and in all likelihood more easily and fully than we do, for our life in cities, which deafens or kills the passive meditative life, and our education that enlarges the separated, self-moving mind, have made our souls less sensitive.”

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