1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,Nor public men, nor cheering crowds.

Come near; I would, before my time to go, Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways: Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.

And God, the herdsman, goads them on behind.

Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns, Amid the rustle of his planted hills, Life overflows without ambitious pains; And rains down life until the basin spills, And mounts more dizzy high the more it rains As though to choose whatever shape it wills....

I gave what other women gave That stepped out of their clothes But when this soul, its body off Naked to naked goes, He it has found shall find therein What none other knows.

And say my glory was I had such friends.

Because I helped to wind the clock, I come to hear it strike.

The women that I picked spoke sweet and low And yet gave tongue. "Hound voices" were they all.

Style, personality -- deliberately adopted and therefore a mask -- is the only escape from the hot-faced bargainers and money-changers.