Down by the sally gardens my love and I did meet;She passed the sally gardens with little snow-white feet.She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. – William Butler Yeats
I will find out where she has gone,And kiss her lips and take her hands.And pluck till time and times are doneThe silver apples of the moon,The golden apples of the sun. – William Butler Yeats The Song of Wandering Aengus
In Dreams I, being, poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. – William Butler Yeats The Cloths of Heaven
Some people say there is a God; others say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. – William Butler Yeats
Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World! You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing. – William Butler Yeats The Rose of Battle
The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober. – William Butler Yeats
Irish poets, learn your trade, sing whatever is well made, scorn the sort now growing up all out of shape from toe to top. – William Butler Yeats
I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath, a waste of breath the years behind, in balance with this life, this death. – William Butler Yeats
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends. – William Butler Yeats
People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind. – William Butler Yeats
I think it better that in times like these a poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right. – William Butler Yeats
Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams, Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round. – William Butler Yeats
When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep. – William Butler Yeats
I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera. – William Butler Yeats
I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love. – William Butler Yeats
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. – William Butler Yeats
Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. – William Butler Yeats
Out of Ireland have we come, great hatred, little room, maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother’s womb a fanatic heart. – William Butler Yeats
Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. – William Butler Yeats
Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution. – William Butler Yeats
