William Butler Yeats Quotes

A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him up for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown.

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The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

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Accursed who brings to light of day the writings I have cast away.

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God guard me from those thoughts men think In the mind alone.

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Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance How can we know the dancer from the dance?

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Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.

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If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.

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He Who is wrapped in purple robes, With planets in His care, Had pity on the least of things Asleep upon a chair.

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Whence had they come The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome? What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?

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The hare grows old as she plays in the sun And gazes around her with eyes of brightness; Before the swift things that she dreamed of were done She limps along in an aged whiteness.

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What the world's million lips are searching for, must be substantial somewhere.

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The Muse is mute when public men Applaud a modern throne.

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Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labour of its unfamiliar thought.

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And that enquiring man John Synge comes next, That dying chose the living world for text And never could have rested in the tomb But that, long travelling, he had come Towards nightfall upon certain set apart In a most desolate stony place.

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Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire, With your harmonious choir Encircle her I love and sing her into peace, That my old care may cease.

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Tags : William Butler Yeats Quotes , Fall Quotes , Compassion Quotes

Some burn damp faggots, others may consume The entire combustible world in one small room As though dried straw, and if we turn about The bare chimney is gone black out Because the work had finished in that flare.

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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."

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I broke my heart in two So hard I struck. What matter? for I know That out of rock, Out of a desolate source, Love leaps upon its course.

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I bring you with reverent hands The books of my numberless dreams.

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Though leaves are many, the root is one.

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