We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy. William Butler Yeats More Quotes by William Butler Yeats More Quotes From William Butler Yeats Evil comes to us men of imagination wearing as its mask all the virtues. William Butler Yeats imagination evil men On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by! William Butler Yeats eye life death You think it horrible that lust and rage Should dance attention upon my old age; They were not such a plague when I was young; What else have I to spur me into song? William Butler Yeats lust song thinking For such, William Butler Yeats kindness beautiful beauty The night can sweat with terror as before We pieced our thoughts into philosophy, And planned to bring the world under a rule, Who are but weasels fighting in a hole. William Butler Yeats fighting philosophy night I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang. William Butler Yeats byzantium tree bird There is only one romance the Soul's. William Butler Yeats romance soul inspirational We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women with. Letter to Olivia Shakespeare, 1936 William Butler Yeats loneliness friendship death It seems to me that love, if it is fine, is essentially a discipline. William Butler Yeats fine discipline love The falcon cannot hear the falconer William Butler Yeats things-fall-apart-important anarchy falling-apart The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write. . . . I have always considered myself a voice of what I believe to be a greater renaissance - the revolt of the soul against the intellect. William Butler Yeats writing life believe Be secret and exult, Because of all things known That is most difficult. William Butler Yeats difficult known secret Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution. William Butler Yeats atheism religious way While they danced they came over them the weariness with the world, the melancholy, the pity one for the other, which is the exultation of love. William Butler Yeats melancholy love world What shall I do with this absurdity- O heart, O troubled heart-this caricature, Decrepit age that has been tied to me As to a dog's tail? Never had I more Excited, passionate, fantastical Imagination, nor an ear and eye That more expected the impossible. William Butler Yeats eye dog heart 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. William Butler Yeats men book thinking Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice? William Butler Yeats broken-heart sacrifice long A thought Of that late death took all my heart for speech. William Butler Yeats speech heart death My temptation is quiet. Here at life's end Neither loose imagination Nor the mill of the mind Consuming its rag and bone, Can make the truth known. William Butler Yeats imagination truth life Fair and foul are near of kin And fair needs foul," I cried. "My friends are gone, but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied." William Butler Yeats bed truth friendship
