How but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born? William Butler Yeats More Quotes by William Butler Yeats More Quotes From William Butler Yeats O heart the winds have shaken, the unappeasable host William Butler Yeats motherheartwind I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my teens, of living in imitation of Thoreau on Innisfree, a little island in Lough Gill, and when walking through Fleet Street very homesick I heard a little tinkle of water and saw a fountain in a shop window which balanced a little ball upon its jet, and began to remember lake water. From the sudden remembrance came my poem Innisfree. William Butler Yeats ambitionlakeslife I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young / And weep because I know all things now. William Butler Yeats drunkalecountry I have found nothing half so good / As my long-planned half solitude, / Where I can sit up half the night / With some friend that has the wit. William Butler Yeats solitudenightlong Yet they that know all things but know William Butler Yeats laughterlifechildren I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings. William Butler Yeats wingsmorningpeace All art that is not mere storytelling, or mere portraiture, is symbolic, and has the purpose of those symbolic talismans which medieval magicians made with complex colours and forms, and bade their patients ponder over daily, and guard with holy secrecy; for it entangles, in complex colours and forms, a part of the Divine Essence. William Butler Yeats purposeessenceart The soul of man is of the imperishable substance of the stars! William Butler Yeats starssoulmen No man has ever lived that had enough of children's gratitude or woman's love. William Butler Yeats gratitudefamilychildren All think what other people think; William Butler Yeats gossipmenthinking Fairies in Ireland are sometimes as big as we are, sometimes bigger, and sometimes, as I have been told, about three feet high. William Butler Yeats threefeetsometimes It is so many years before one can believe enough in what one feels even to know what the feeling is William Butler Yeats happinessbelieveyears Our own acts are isolated and one act does not buy absolution for another. William Butler Yeats absolutionisolateddoe yet it seems William Butler Yeats gardenmorninglife What were all the world's alarms To mighty Paris when he found Sleep upon a golden bed That first dawn in Helen's arms? William Butler Yeats parisbedsleep When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, suddenly I meet your face. William Butler Yeats winefacessleep Dream, dream, for this is also sooth. William Butler Yeats dream The woods of Arcady are dead, And over is their antique joy; Of old the world on dreaming fed Gray Truth is now her painted toy. William Butler Yeats truthdreamjoy O what fine thought we had because we thought that the worst rogues and rascals had died out. William Butler Yeats fineworstrogues Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance How can we know the dancer from the dance? William Butler Yeats oildancingwisdom
