William Butler Yeats, (1865-1939) Irish Poet, Revivalist of Irish Literature Quotes

Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. When may it suffice?

I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show his best, or even a good man swing his lantern higher.

It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says "there is no wisdom without leisure.

I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering, jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.

Joy is the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.

Think where mans glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.

It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure.

Think where man's glory most begins and ends,And say my glory was I had such friends.

A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstinting has been naught.

And say my glory was I had such friends.