Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in…

Quote by William Butler Yeats

Topics: Books Quotes

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

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

The Government does not intend these things to happen, the Commission on whose report the...

The Government does not intend these things to happen, the Commission on whose report the...

Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the...

Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the...

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.

We are happy when for everything inside us there is a corresponding something outside us.

Where, where but here have Pride and Truth, That long to give themselves for wage,...

Where, where but here have Pride and Truth, That long to give themselves for wage,...

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so...

I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so...

The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time

The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time

An intellectual hatred is the worst.

An intellectual hatred is the worst.

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

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

May God be praised for woman That gives up all her mind, A man may...

May God be praised for woman That gives up all her mind, A man may...

Who can tell the dancer from the dance?

Who can tell the dancer from the dance?

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

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

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods...

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods...

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves,...

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves,...

I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath,...

I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath,...

We . . . are no petty people. We are of the great stocks of...

We . . . are no petty people. We are of the great stocks of...

Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not...

Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not...

A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's...

A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moment's...

Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand...

Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand...

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.