1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self.

We were the last romantics -- chose for themeTraditional sanctity and loveliness.

Test every work of intellect or faith, And everything that your own hands have wrought And call those works extravagance of breath That are not suited for such men as come Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.

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.

For wisdom is the property of the dead, A something incompatible with life; and power, Like everything that has the stain of blood, A property of the living; but no stain Can come upon the visage of the moon When it has looked in glory from a cloud.

From our birthday, until we die, Is but the winking of an eye.

Land of Heart's Desire Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.

And if joy were not on the earth, There were an end of change and birth, And Earth and Heaven and Hell would die, And in some gloomy barrow lie Folded like a frozen fly....

Only that which does not teach, which does not cry out, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible.