W.B. Yeats
Greatest English-language poet of the 20th century
Most quoted
"Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, Or hurled the little streets upon the great, Had they but courage equal to desire?"
— from No Second Troy, 1916
"We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Grattan; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of O'Connell, the people of Charles Stewart Parnell."
— from Speech, 1922
"Things said or done long years ago, / Or things I did not do or say / But thought that I might say or do, / Weigh me down, and not a day / But something is recalled, / My conscience or my vanity appalled."
— from Vacillation, 1933
All quotes by W.B. Yeats (350)
Man is a political animal, and a very foolish one at that.
The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
I have always been a man of the people, and the people have always been a mystery to me.
The world is a stage, but the play is badly written.
I have always been a man of action, but my actions have always been in my head.
I have spent my life in trying to find out what I believe, and I have found that I believe nothing.
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
I have always been a man of the world, but the world has always been a puzzle to me.
The trouble with Ireland is that it's a country where the impossible is always happening and the inevitable never.
I have always been a man of peace, but I have always been at war with myself.
I have always been a man of letters, and I have found that letters are very difficult to read.
The Irish are a people who will never be happy until they are all miserable.
I have always been a man of many words, but few of them have been understood.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.
I have always been a man of the cloth, but I have always been naked.
The only thing that makes life bearable is the knowledge that it will end.
I have always been a man of the people, and the people have always been a disappointment to me.
I have always been a man of the pen, but my pen has always been dry.
The Irish are a people who will never forgive you for being right.
I have always been a man of the spirit, but my spirit has always been broken.
Contemporaries of W.B. Yeats
Other Literatures born within 50 years of W.B. Yeats (1865–1939).