1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

When a man grows old his joy Grows more deep day after day, His empty heart is full at length But he has need of all that strength Because of the increasing Night That opens her mystery and fright.

We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy.

When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, suddenly I meet your face.

All dreams of the soul End in a beautiful man's or woman's body.

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

It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.

Until the axle break That keeps the stars in their round, And hands hurl in the deep The banners of East and West, And the girdle of light is unbound, Your breast will not lie by the breast Of your beloved in sleep

While on that old grey stone I sat Under the old wind-broken tree, I knew that One is animate, Mankind inanimate phantasy.

Cuchulain stirred, Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard The cars of battle and his own name cried; And fought with the invulnerable tide.