Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by William Butler Yeats

Quote by William Butler Yeats

Work

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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. more

You May Also Like

“At what point does the narcissism and cruelty of childhood stop being adorable and start being a possible symptom of a mental disorder? I cannot answer this question. I don't understand Lori, despite four decades of attempts. Seeking to understand Lori is a black hole that sucks up everything around it. I'm tired of that. It meant that through much of my life in my family, I didn't get to have a story. This led me to an obsession with trying to think about the people, places, and things we don't think about.”

“She stops, stares deep into my eyes. I wonder if this is where I kiss her, because that is how the story goes, right: first we stare at each other’s eyes, then we kiss, then we marry, than we have kids and then we die, unless we were dead all along, in which case no grand finale for us, oh no. Iva flicks my left brow. Ouch. Don’t suppose I ought to marry a flicker.”

“We are all children, aren’t we. The difference between the man and the children is only the toys. As you grow up you start to have more things to think, more things to worry about and you lose it. So it is important when you have the opportunity to have the place to go back a little bit like a child, so you can recycle your mind a little bit. Just slow down and enjoy life, like children do. They do not think about tomorrow, they do not think about next year or next month, they think about right now. They just see a game and they try to play that game right now. It doesn’t matter an hour ahead, they do not think an hour ahead, so they enjoy completely life and its full potential.”

“The "child" was an invention of the seventeenth century; he did not exist in, say, Shakespeare's day. He had, up until that time, been merged in the adult world and there was nothing that could be called childhood in our sense. Today's child is growing up absurd, because he lives in two worlds, and neither of them inclines him to grow up. Growing up - that is our new work, and it is total. Mere instruction will not suffice.”

“Maman never told me what to do when the world falls apart like a dress ripped at its seams, the beads scattering into faraway corners, the fabric a storm of shredded pieces left destroyed and unrecognizable. She never told me how to battle the nightmares that creep in like icy shadows, lingering behind closed eyes. She never told me what to do when all the color leaks out of the world like blood oozing from a mortal wound.”

“Yes, it is possible that we do not grow up, that even as we grow old, we remain the children we always were. We remember ourselves as we were then, and we feel ourselves to be the same. We made ourselves into what we are now then, and we remain what we were, in spite of the years. We do not change for ourselves. Time makes us grow old, but we do not change.”