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 The poor have very few hours in which to enjoy themselves; they must take their pleasure raw; they haven't the time to cook it. William Butler Yeats hours pleasure poor It is not permitted to a man, who takes up pen or chisel, to seek originality, for passion is his only business, and he cannot but mould or sing after a new fashion because no disaster is like another. William Butler Yeats passion fashion men All that we did, all that we said or sang must come from contact with the soil. William Butler Yeats soil garden earth There are a few of the open-air spirits; the more domestic of their tribe gather within-doors, plentiful as swallows under southern eaves. William Butler Yeats southern air doors And God, the herdsman, goads them on behind. William Butler Yeats oxen behinds time And pluck till time and times are done the silver apples of the moon the golden apples of the sun. William Butler Yeats valentines-day moon time The desire that is satisfied is not a great desire, nor has the shoulder used all its might that an unbreakable gate has never strained. William Butler Yeats unbreakable desire might He only can create the greatest imaginable beauty who has endured all imaginable pangs, for only when we have seen and foreseen what we dread shall we be rewarded by that dazzling unforeseen wing-footed wanderer. William Butler Yeats dread wings beauty Cats are oppressed, dogs terrify them, landladies starve them, boys stone them, everybody speaks of them with contempt. If they were human beings we could talk of their oppressors with a studied violence, add our strength to theirs, even organize the oppressed and like good politicians sell our charity for power. William Butler Yeats cat dog boys A line will take us hours maybe; / Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, / Our stitching and unstitching has been naught... Better go down upon your marrow-bones / And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones... For to articulate sweet sounds together / Is to work harder than all these, and yet / Be thought an idler by the noisy set. William Butler Yeats kitchen hard-work sweet Florence Farr once said to me, If we could say to ourselves, with sincerity, 'this passing moment is as good as any I shall ever know,' we could die upon the instant and be united with God. William Butler Yeats passing-moments florence sincerity When two close kindred meet What better than call a dance?. William Butler Yeats kindred dance two I have no question: It is enough, I know what fixed the station Of star and cloud. And knowing all, I cry. . . . William Butler Yeats stars knowing clouds Heaven blazing into the head: Tragedy wrought to its uttermost. Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages And all the drop-scenes drop at once Upon a hundred thousand stages It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce. William Butler Yeats scene tragedy heaven So long as all is ordered for attack, and that alone, leaders will instinctively increase the number of enemies that they may give their followers something to do. William Butler Yeats numbers giving long The winds that awakened the stars Are blowing through my blood. William Butler Yeats stars life blood I pray-for fashion's word is out And prayer comes round again- That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man. William Butler Yeats fashion prayer death That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees - Those dying generations-at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unaging intellect. William Butler Yeats summer country death The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor. William Butler Yeats uncontrollable unsatisfied mystery Grant me an old man's frenzy, Myself must I remake Till I am Timon and Lear Or that William Blake Who beat upon the wall Till Truth obeyed his call. William Butler Yeats wall truth men
