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)
The world is a song, and we are all singing it off-key.
I have always been a man of the sword, but my sword has always been blunt.
The Irish are a people who will never forget a slight, and never remember a kindness.
I have always been a man of the cloth, but my cloth has always been threadbare.
The world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.
I have always been a man of the book, but my book has always been empty.
The Irish are a people who will never be satisfied until they have nothing left to complain about.
I have always been a man of the word, but my word has always been unspoken.
The world is a riddle, and we are all trying to solve it with the wrong answers.
I have always been a man of the heart, but my heart has always been broken.
The Irish are a people who will always be divided, even when they are united.
An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick, unless / Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing / For every tatter in its mortal dress.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
I have spread my dreams under your feet; / Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
We are but a moment's thought, / A moment's glance, a moment's breath, / And then the long, long sleep of death.
The only two things that matter in life are love and art.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.
All things are made of the same stuff, and that is dreams.
There is no help for the life of a man / But that he be born and die.
The soul is a living, self-moving, self-changing flame.
Contemporaries of W.B. Yeats
Other Literatures born within 50 years of W.B. Yeats (1865–1939).