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 full of magic, and we are all a part of it.
I am trying to create a theatre that will be a ritual, a ceremony, a mystery.
We make out of the quarrel with others rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves poetry.
I have been trying to find a form for my poetry that will be as simple and as direct as speech.
I am convinced that there is a spiritual world, and that we can communicate with it.
The world is a tragic place, but it is also a beautiful place.
I am trying to write a poetry that will be as hard and as clear as a diamond.
I have always believed that art should be a part of life, and not separate from it.
I am trying to create a mythology for Ireland, a mythology that will be as rich and as deep as the Greek mythology.
The artist is a man who has a vision, and who tries to communicate that vision to the world.
I have always been drawn to the mystical and the occult, and I believe that they are a part of the truth.
I am trying to write a poetry that will be as passionate and as intense as life itself.
The world is a place of suffering, but it is also a place of joy.
I have always believed that poetry should be sung, and not just read.
I am trying to create a poetry that will be as timeless and as universal as the great myths.
I have always been a man of contradictions, and I believe that contradictions are a part of the truth.
I am trying to write a poetry that will be as beautiful and as terrible as the world itself.
I have always believed that art should be a spiritual act, and not just an aesthetic one.
I am trying to create a poetry that will be as wise and as profound as the ancient philosophers.
The world is a mystery, and we are all trying to understand it.
Contemporaries of W.B. Yeats
Other Literatures born within 50 years of W.B. Yeats (1865–1939).