1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

Nor dread nor hope attend A dying animal; A man awaits his end Dreading and hoping all; Many times he died, Many times rose again. A great man in his pride Confronting murderous men Casts derision upon Supersession of breath; He knows death to the bone – Man has created death.

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.

I pray-for fashion’s word is out And prayer comes round again- That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man.

Though logic-choppers rule the town, And every man and maid and boy Has marked a distant object down, An aimless joy is a pure joy...

The Danaan children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold, And clap their hands together, and half close their eyes, For they will ride the North when the ger-eagle flies, With heavy whitening wings, and a heart fallen cold...

The soldier takes pride in saluting his Captain, The devotee proffers a knee to his Lord, Some back a mare thrown from a thoroughbred, Troy backed its Helen, Troy died and adored; Great nations blossom above, A slave bows down to a slave.

I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow; And then I must scrub and bake and sweep Till the stars are beginning to blink and peep; And the young lie long and dream in their bed...

What’s memory but the ash That chokes our fires that have begun to sink?

Give to these children, new from the world, Rest far from men. Is anything better, anything better? Tell us it then...