1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

When an immortal passion breathes in mortal clay; Our hearts endure the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side, The vinegar-heavy sponge, the flowers by Kedron stream...

The Muse is mute when public men Applaud a modern throne.

A terrible beauty is born.

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

The blessed spirits must be sought within the self which is common to all.

Farewell – farewell, For I am weary of the weight of time.

Civilisation is hooped together, brought Under a rule, under the semblance of peace By manifold illusion...

In luck or out the toil has left its mark: That old perplexity an empty purse, Or the day’s vanity, the night’s remorse.

He was a great teller of tales, and unlike our common romancers, knew how to empty heaven, hell, and purgatory, faeryland and earth, to people his stories.