1,059 Quotes by William Butler Yeats

THE REALISTS Hope that you may understand! What can books of men that wive In a dragon-guarded land, Paintings of the dolphin-drawn Sea-nymphs in their pearly waggons Do, but awake a hope to live That had gone With the dragons?

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

A tree there is that from its topmost bough Is half all glittering flame and half all green Abounding foliage moistened with the dew; And half is half and yet is all the scene; And half and half consume what they renew...

My curse on plays That have to be set up in fifty ways, On the day’s war with every knave and dolt, Theater business, management of men.

What if the Church and the State Are the mob that howls at the door! Wine shall run thick to the end, Bread taste sour.

How can they know Truth flourishes where the student’s lamp has shone, And there alone, that have no solitude? So the crowd come they care not what may come. They have loud music, hope every day renewed And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb.

I know, although when looks meet I tremble to the bone, The more I leave the door unlatched The sooner love is gone...

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember.

O heart! O heart! if she’d but turn her head You’d know the folly of being comforted.