A biography for William Butler Yeatshasn’t been written yet.
“In dreams begins responsibility.”
“The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.”
“An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.”
“Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die.”
“This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.”
“Nor dread nor hope attend a dying animal; a man awaits his end dreading and hoping all.”
“We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.”
“I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.'”
“You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland's history in their lineaments trace; think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.”
“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.”
“All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.”
“When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.”
“If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.”
“Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution.”
“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.”
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
“Out of Ireland have we come, great hatred, little room, maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic heart.”
“I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.”
“Irish poets, learn your trade, sing whatever is well made, scorn the sort now growing up all out of shape from toe to top.”
“A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love.”