William Butler Yeats Quotes

Powerful William Butler Yeats for Daily Growth

About William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), an Irish poet and playwright, was born in Sandymount, Dublin, to artist parents. His childhood was steeped in the legends, myths, and folklore of Ireland that would later become central themes in his work. Yeats' early years were marked by a deep spiritual quest, fueled by his interest in mysticism, esotericism, and the occult. He joined the Theosophical Society and co-founded the Irish National Theatre Society, which later evolved into the Abbey Theatre. His fascination with ancient Ireland led to a lifelong exploration of Celtic mythology and nationalist politics. Yeats published his first volume of poetry, "Poems", in 1889, but it was his second collection, "The Rose" (1893), that showcased the influences of W. B. Yeats' growing interest in Irish mythology and nationalism. His work continued to evolve, reflecting his experiences and political views. In 1897, he published "The Wind Among the Reeds", a collection inspired by his love for Maud Gonne, a woman who was both his muse and a significant influence on his political activism. Despite their tumultuous relationship, they never married. Yeats' magnum opus, "The Tower" (1928), is considered one of the greatest works in English poetry. It reflects on his life, loves, and Irish politics. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, acknowledging his exceptional contributions to literature. Throughout his life, W. B. Yeats' work reflected his deep connection with Ireland, its history, and its people. His poetry is noted for its rich imagery, complex symbolism, and exploration of mythology, spirituality, and the human condition. His legacy continues to inspire poets and readers around the world.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

This quote by William Butler Yeats emphasizes that the world is filled with hidden wonders and mysteries, awaiting those who are sensitive enough to perceive them. It encourages us to open our minds and sharpen our senses to experience and appreciate the magic inherent in life, which often goes unnoticed due to our own limitations or preoccupations. Essentially, Yeats is inviting us to engage with the world in a more mindful and curious way, discovering its enchantments.

"In dreams begin responsibilities."

This quote by William Butler Yeats suggests that our dreams, aspirations, or ideals serve as a starting point for assuming responsibilities in life. The phrase "in dreams" implies a state of imagination or vision, where we envision our goals and desires. Taking on these responsibilities is the practical, real-world application of those dreams, which gives them substance and purpose. Thus, dreams are essential because they inspire us to take action and fulfill our potential in life.

"Only God, my friend, can help us now." (from 'The Second Coming')

This quote by William Butler Yeats from 'The Second Coming' suggests a profound sense of despair and longing for divine intervention. In the context of the poem, Yeats is expressing his fear and anxiety about the chaotic and violent state of the world. He believes that only God, a higher power or source of morality and hope, can provide help and guidance in these troubled times. This quote serves as a cry for hope and peace amidst chaos and uncertainty.

"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free."

This quote suggests that true self-realization and freedom can only occur in solitude. The absence of external influence allows an individual to explore their authentic self, values, thoughts, and desires uninhibited by societal expectations or peer pressure. Embracing solitude is thus essential for fostering personal independence and self-discovery, a prerequisite for genuine freedom.

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking." (from 'Per Amica Silentia Lunae')

This quote by William Butler Yeats encourages immediate, determined action towards a goal. Instead of waiting for perfect circumstances or conditions, one should create those conditions themselves through persistent effort and initiative. The metaphor "strike" symbolizes taking decisive action, while "making it hot" means creating opportunities and momentum to achieve success. Essentially, Yeats is saying that instead of passively waiting, we should proactively take steps to make our dreams or goals come true.

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.

- William Butler Yeats

Beautiful, Time, Enemy, Innocent

This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.

- William Butler Yeats

Through, Feels, Perpetually, London

Joy is of the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.

- William Butler Yeats

Triumph, Which, Labours, Overcomes

Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.

- William Butler Yeats

Dreams, Bag, Will, Round

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

- William Butler Yeats

Education, Fire, Pail, Filling

You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland's history in their lineaments trace; think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.

- William Butler Yeats

Book, Hang, Had, Portraits

Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

- William Butler Yeats

Soul, New, Before, Trial

You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements.

- William Butler Yeats

Some, Idea, Englishman, Compromise

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

- William Butler Yeats

Motivational, Wait, Till, Striking

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.

- William Butler Yeats

Truth, Know, Cannot, Embody

When you are old and gray 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.

- William Butler Yeats

Book, Deep, Had, Shadows

The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.

- William Butler Yeats

Alone, Looks, Always, Shadows

I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.

- William Butler Yeats

Bad, Show, Every Man, A Good Man

Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!

- William Butler Yeats

Mountains, Like, Come, Fairies

An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.

- William Butler Yeats

Dress, Hands, Louder, Clap

Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.

- William Butler Yeats

Away, Cast, Brings, Accursed

Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.

- William Butler Yeats

Design, Think, Silent, Ambassador

Be secret and exult, Because of all things known That is most difficult.

- William Butler Yeats

Most, Things, Known, All Things

Irish poets, learn your trade, sing whatever is well made, scorn the sort now growing up all out of shape from toe to top.

- William Butler Yeats

Learn, Shape, Made, Scorn

How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.

- William Butler Yeats

Romantic, Away, How Far, First Kiss

Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?

- William Butler Yeats

Sacrifice, May, Too, Stone

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.

- William Butler Yeats

Saint Patrick's Day, Which, Abide

I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'

- William Butler Yeats

Beauty, Away, Waters, Old Men

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera.

- William Butler Yeats

Opera, Like, Almost, Expects

Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.

- William Butler Yeats

Best, Rest, Choose, Companions

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- William Butler Yeats

Dreams, Feet, Being, Tread

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- William Butler Yeats

Dreams, Because, Softly, Tread

The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.

- William Butler Yeats

Broken, Feet, Behind, Tread

Out of Ireland have we come, great hatred, little room, maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic heart.

- William Butler Yeats

Great, Start, Come, Womb

The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.

- William Butler Yeats

Drunk, Some, Worst Thing, Sober

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.

- William Butler Yeats

Mind, Imagination, Starving, Best Part

Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die.

- William Butler Yeats

Love, Dating, Die, Wine

The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

- William Butler Yeats

Own, More, Given, Great Writer

Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution.

- William Butler Yeats

Kind, Religious, Persecution, Legislation

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.

- William Butler Yeats

Happy, Outside, Everything, Corresponding

Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

- William Butler Yeats

Sympathy, Away, Waters, Fairy

Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.

- William Butler Yeats

Thought, Dead, Repair, Conversation

I am still of opinion that only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood - sex and the dead.

- William Butler Yeats

Mood, Still, Topics, Studious

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

- William Butler Yeats

Rhetoric, Make, Ourselves, Quarrel

Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.

- William Butler Yeats

History, Die, Honour, Entering

All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.

- William Butler Yeats

Souls, Tend, Toward, Extreme

A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

- William Butler Yeats

Thought, Hours, Been, Stitching

The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.

- William Butler Yeats

World, Head, Ceaseless, Bow

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

- William Butler Yeats

Wise, Think, Communicate, Wise Man

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.

- William Butler Yeats

Friendship, Here, Only, Met

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.

- William Butler Yeats

Happy, Pleasure, Nor, Simply

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.

- William Butler Yeats

Mind, Behind, Waste, Breath

To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.

- William Butler Yeats

Beautiful, Woman, Although, Labor

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

- William Butler Yeats

Life, Life Is A, Never, Happens

One should not lose one's temper unless one is certain of getting more and more angry to the end.

- William Butler Yeats

Anger, Temper, Getting, Certain

Nor dread nor hope attend a dying animal; a man awaits his end dreading and hoping all.

- William Butler Yeats

Hope, Attend, Dread, Hoping

An intellectual hatred is the worst.

- William Butler Yeats

Hatred, Worst, Intellectual

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

- William Butler Yeats

Know, How, Dancer, Dance

I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.

- William Butler Yeats

Gift, Think, Silent, Poet

If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.

- William Butler Yeats

Wise, Wish, Brings, Less

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

- William Butler Yeats

Best, Passionate, Intensity, Full

Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry.

- William Butler Yeats

Mind, Other, Cast, Days

A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love.

- William Butler Yeats

Love, Pity, Telling, Hid

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

- William Butler Yeats

Art, Think, I Think, Superior

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.

- William Butler Yeats

Love, Fate, Guard, Somewhere

I am of a healthy long lived race, and our minds improve with age.

- William Butler Yeats

I Am, Minds, Race, Healthy

I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.

- William Butler Yeats

Wife, Desire, More, Child

But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

- William Butler Yeats

Dog, Ever, His, Praised

In dreams begins responsibility.

- William Butler Yeats

Dreams, Begins, Responsibility

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.

- William Butler Yeats

Think, Saint Patrick's Day, Ends

Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.

- William Butler Yeats

Love, Guard, Those, Hate

Talent perceives differences; genius, unity.

- William Butler Yeats

Unity, Genius, Differences, Talent

And say my glory was I had such friends.

- William Butler Yeats

Glory, Say, Had, Friends

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