Picture this: you're nestled in a cozy armchair in a secluded Irish cottage. Outside, the Emerald Isle's ethereal landscape twinkles in the twilight, and inside, a roaring fire crackles as the scent of aged books fills the room. That's the dream-like reality W.B. Yeats immersed himself in while penning down his timeless verses. And it's exactly this mysticism that flows through his words, painting pictures, and weaving stories that continue to captivate us today. In this blog post, we're bringing you closer to that enchantment with “50 Mystical W.B. Yeats Quotes”. Each quote, a mirror to his soul, an insight into his enigmatic world, promises to inspire, motivate, and soothe in ways you wouldn't imagine.
There's something truly mesmerizing about Yeats and his artistry. Take this for instance – one evening, while walking along the London streets, Yeats saw a flock of starlings flying overhead. The sight was so impactful that he rushed home to translate his emotions into words, resulting in some of his most acclaimed poems. In these lines, you'll find the same inspiring touch, whether you're seeking solace, direction, or simply a moment of tranquility amidst the chaos of life. So, sit back, relax, and prepare to dive into a collection of profound “W.B. Yeats Quotes” that are as mystical as the man himself.
Dreaming and Vision
1. “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – W.B. Yeats
2. “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats
3. “In dreams begins responsibility.” – W.B. Yeats
4. “I have spread my dreams under your feet.” – W.B. Yeats
5. “The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.” – W.B. Yeats
6. “Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.” – W.B. Yeats
7. “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” – W.B. Yeats
8. “The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind.” – W.B. Yeats
9. “O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, how can we know the dancer from the dance?” – W.B. Yeats
10. “Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild with a faery, hand in hand.” – W.B. Yeats
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The Dance of Life
- “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W.B. Yeats
- “I am of Ireland, and the Holy Land of Ireland, and time runs on,” cried she. “Come out of charity and dance with me in Ireland.” – W.B. Yeats
- “There is no country for old men.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, it's with O'Leary in the grave.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” – W.B. Yeats
- “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” – W.B. Yeats
- “In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, the blue and the dim and the dark cloths, of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet.” – W.B. Yeats
- “For peace comes dropping slow.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” – W.B. Yeats
Love and Desire
- “Wine comes in at the mouth and love comes in at the eye.” – W.B. Yeats
- “But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – W.B. Yeats
- “How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.” – W.B. Yeats
- “For he would be thinking of love till the stars had run away and the shadows eaten the moon.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.” – W.B. Yeats
- “You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, ‘Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements.'” – W.B. Yeats
- “Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.” – W.B. Yeats
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Myth and Symbolism
- “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Man is in love and loves what vanishes, what more is there to say?” – W.B. Yeats
- “Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the disheveled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Why should not old men be mad?” – W.B. Yeats
- “Nor dread nor hope attend a dying animal; A man awaits his end dreading and hoping all.” – W.B. Yeats
- “The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” – W.B. Yeats
- “The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.” – W.B. 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.” – W.B. Yeats
- “People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.” – W.B. Yeats
- “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.” – W.B. Yeats
The Soul's Journey
- “The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.” – W.B. Yeats
- “We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us, that they may see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.” – W.B. Yeats
- “The true faith discovered was When painted panel, statuary. God and his mother, soared to go So higher thought, and art's history.” – W.B. Yeats
- “One should not lose one's heart to a wild thing.” – W.B. Yeats
- “And say my glory was I had such friends.” – W.B. Yeats
- “We are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country.” – W.B. Yeats
- “An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination.” – W.B. Yeats
- “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow.” – W.B. Yeats
- “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” – W.B. Yeats
- “To the waters and the wild with a faery, hand in hand, for the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.” – W.B. Yeats
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