William Butler Yeats

Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet

Quotes

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Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?

Michael Robartes and the Dancer , 1921. Easter 1916
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming

Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.

The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. For Anne Gregory

No man has ever lived that had enough
Of children's gratitude or woman's love.

The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. Vacillation

It's certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam's fall but needs much laboring.

In the Seven Woods, 1904. Adam's Curse

I heard the old, old men say
'All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.'

In the Seven Woods, 1904. The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water

And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight.

The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899, Into the Twilight
Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was I had such friends.

Last Poems, 1936-1939, The Municipal Gallery Revisited
Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was I had such friends.
O heart! O heart! if she'd but turn her head
You'd know the folly of being comforted.

In the Seven Woods, 1904. The Folly of Being Comforted
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