I heard the old, old, men say 'all that's beautiful drifts away, like the waters.' William Butler Yeats More Quotes by William Butler Yeats More Quotes From William Butler Yeats We have lit upon the gentle, sensitive mind And lost the old nonchalance of the hand; Whether we have chosen chisel, pen or brush, We are but critics, or but half create. William Butler Yeats half mind hands I would have touched it like a child But knew my finger could but have touched Cold stone and water. I grew wild, Even accusing heaven because It had set down among its laws: Nothing that we love over-much Is ponderable to our touch. William Butler Yeats law children hands Come let us mock at the great That had such burdens on the mind And toiled so hard and late To leave some monument behind, Nor thought of the leveling wind. William Butler Yeats burden mind wind It's certain that fine women eat A crazy salad with their meat. William Butler Yeats women crazy meat And many a poor man that has roved Loved and thought himself beloved From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes. William Butler Yeats eye kindness love I have nothing more to give you than my heart. Spanish saying Hearts are not to be had as a gift hearts are to be earned. William Butler Yeats heart love giving I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of old mythologies From heel to throat But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world's eyes As though they'd wrought it. Song, let them take it, For there's more enterprise In walking naked. William Butler Yeats fool eye song I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day. William Butler Yeats phoenix youth Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of. William Butler Yeats stage player love If soul my look and body touch, Which is the more blest? William Butler Yeats body soul looks I gave what other women gave That stepped out of their clothes But when this soul, its body off Naked to naked goes, He it has found shall find therein What none other knows. William Butler Yeats naked clothes soul Nothing that we love overmuch Is ponderable to our touch. William Butler Yeats love What made us dream that he could comb gray hair? William Butler Yeats made dream hair 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. William Butler Yeats lakes loss heart John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory, thought All that we did, all that we said or sang Must come from contact with the soil, from that Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong. William Butler Yeats soil strong said Being young you have not known William Butler Yeats triumph lost-love life I have heard that hysterical women say William Butler Yeats gay sick poetry O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes, William Butler Yeats women dream beauty O heart, be at peace, because William Butler Yeats poetry sake heart All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability. Propositions, for instance, which set all the truth upon one side can only enter rich minds to dislocate and strain, if they can enter at all, and sooner or later the mind expels them by instinct. William Butler Yeats soul mind memories
